DEL RIO, Texas – U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the Eagle Pass area of operations apprehended two convicted sex offenders recently.
On Aug. 11 around 4 a.m., an agent patrolling on FM 1021 apprehended a group of six undocumented immigrants. During processing, record checks revealed that Marcelino Argueta-Amaya, 59, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador was a registered sex offender. Argueta-Amaya has two previous arrests involving sexual offenses. In 1987 he was convicted by the Los Angeles Superior Court for molestation of a child and sentenced to three years of probation. In 1996 he was arrested by the Huntington, California Park Police for Indecent Exposure. An immigration judge ordered Argueta-Amaya deported in 2004 and he was subsequently removed from the United States via Houston on Oct. 8, 2004 to his native country of El Salvador.
On Aug. 9 at about 11:45 am, agents patrolling near railroad tracks in Eagle Pass arrested a subject later identified as Franklin Alexander Rodriguez-Diaz, 36, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras. During processing it was determined that Rodriguez-Diaz has several convictions including a sex offense against a child - rape - in Cherokee, Oklahoma. He was ordered removed in 1999 by an immigration judge and was subsequently deported from the United States via Houston on March 11, 2004 to his native country of Honduras.
Both subjects face charges of illegal re-entry - 8 USC 1326 - and their prior orders of removal will be reinstated.
For Fiscal Year 2014, which started on Oct. 1, 2013, Del Rio Sector agents have apprehended a total of 26 convicted sex offenders. The Del Rio Border Patrol Sector is part of the South Texas Campaign, which leverages federal, state and local resources to combat transnational criminal organizations. To report suspicious activity call the sector’s toll free telephone number at 1 (866) 511-8727.