Yuma, Arizona - A convicted sex offender was among the more than 1,500 migrants apprehended by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents.

Photo Courtesy of U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Photo Courtesy of U.S. Customs
and Border Protection

Jorge Ramirez-Rivera, a 45-year-old from El Salvador, was part of a group of seven migrants apprehended at approximately 8 p.m. Saturday near County 23rd Street and the Salinity Canal after illegally entering the United States from Mexico.

Record checks conducted on Ramirez-Rivera at the Yuma station revealed that he was a registered sex offender. Ramirez-Rivera was convicted of molestation of a child in 2012 in El Monte, California, for which he was sentenced to 142 days in jail. Ramirez-Rivera was subsequently removed from the U.S. following the completion of his sentence and now faces charges for reentering the country after a previous removal.

So far this fiscal year, since October 1, Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents have apprehended 429 sex offenders who illegally entered the U.S. at a location other than a designated port of entry.