LORDSBURG, New Mexico – U.S. Border Patrol Agents assigned to the Lordsburg Border Patrol station arrested a convicted sex offender Sunday in the boot heel area of southwestern New Mexico.
On the morning of December 3, agents from the Lordsburg station were patrolling New Mexico State Highway 81, when they encountered four individuals on the side of the road. The area in which the group was located is notorious for human smuggling. Agents questioned the group as to their citizenship, to which three stated they were citizens of Guatemala and one a citizen of Honduras. Agents placed the four illegal immigrants under arrest and transported them to the Lordsburg station.
During queries through several immigration and criminal data bases, it was discovered that one of the illegal immigrants, 47-year-old Ezequiel Duarte Duarte, a citizen of Guatemala, had an extensive immigration and criminal history. Duarte had a conviction for “statutory rape with a weapon of a person under 12 years of age” in March 2008. Duarte was sentenced to three years imprisonment for that charge then was formally removed from the U.S. Duarte is being charged with re-entry of an aggravated felon after removal and is awaiting prosecution. The remaining subjects also had extensive immigration histories and will be charged accordingly.
In the first 11 months of fiscal year 2017 the El Paso Sector apprehended more 20,000 subjects who entered the United States illegally. These incidents display how vigilance by U.S. Border Patrol Agents and the rapid response by the agency often prevents the entry of convicted criminals into our communities, while keeping our nations’ borders safe.