“An active member of the MS-13 gang admitted to U.S. Border Patrol officials that he joined a caravan of migrants in the hopes of reaching the border and crossing into the United States, a U.S. official told the Washington Examiner” this week.
“Jose Villalobos-Jobel of Honduras was arrested on Nov. 24, after being spotted standing on the U.S. side of the border east of the port of entry in Calexico, Calif.”
Unfortunately, just as migrant caravans from south of the US border form routinely (although this autumn’s is probably the largest on record), neither is this the first time that a member of MS-13 has used one to attempt entry into the US.
Just last April, another such instance occurred: “The gang member, an 18-year-old named Herberth Geovani Argueta-Chavez, had crossed into the United States with a group of 60 other migrants believed to be part of the migrant caravan that President Donald Trump has focused on over the last several weeks. The young gang member had pretended to be an unaccompanied minor, but police later ascertained that he is an adult who was affiliated with the infamous cross-border criminal group,” according to a report in Newsweek.
The Department of Homeland Security states that about 600 members of the most recent migrant caravan are known criminals:
“[W]e cannot confirm the backgrounds and identities of all caravan members which possess a national security and public safety risk to our country,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement on Monday. “However, at this point we have confirmed that there are over 600 convicted criminals traveling with the caravan flow. This includes individuals known to law enforcement for assault, battery, drug crimes, burglary, rape, child abuse and more. This is serious. Additionally, Mexico has already arrested 100 caravan members for criminal violations in Mexico.”
