SAN DIEGO — U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the San Diego border crossings Wednesday stopped two men for attempting to enter the United States illegally.
These were just two of the numerous attempts to enter the country illegally stopped by CBP officers on Wednesday.
At about 5 a.m. a 28-year-old man arrived at the Otay Mesa port of entry on foot and presented a California birth certificate to the CBP officer. The officer immediately referred the man out of line for a more intensive inspection.
Officers discovered that the man was not the person listed on the birth certificate, and was instead a citizen of El Salvador with no legal ability to enter the United States, who had been previously deported by an immigration judge.
At about 7 a.m. a CBP officer working in the pedestrian processing building at the San Ysidro port of entry caught a 22-year-old man attempting to sneak past his inspection booth without undergoing an inspection to enter the United States.
CBP officers uncovered that the man is a citizen of Mexico with no legal ability to enter the United States, who had been previously deported by an immigration judge and had a prior conviction in the U.S. on burglary charges.
“These cases are emblematic of what we encounter on a daily basis at our ports of entry along the California/Mexico border,” said Pete Flores, Director of Field Operations for CBP in San Diego. “CBP officers must be on the lookout not only for obvious illegal entry attempts, such as persons attempting to sneak past officers, but also persons who present themselves, but aren’t who they say they are.”
Both men were booked into the Metropolitan Correctional Center.