U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers on Saturday apprehended a convicted sex offender in Yuma, after he illegally entered the United States from Mexico.

The 45-year-old from El Salvador, Jorge Ramirez-Rivera, was traveling with a group of seven other migrants.

“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,” CBP said in a statement on Monday.

Furthermore, Ramirez-Rivera had been already removed from the U.S. following the completion of his sentence and now faces charges for re-entering the country after a previous removal.

Over the weekend, the convicted child sex offender was just one of more than 1,500 migrants apprehended by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents alone.

Since October 1, CBP also detailed that Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents alone have apprehended 429 sex offenders who illegally entered the U.S. at a location other than a designated port of entry.

Throughout the state, Arizona continues to witness a dramatic surge in the number of illegal immigrants entering the country.

In Tucson, 280 unaccompanied minors were captured in the Tucson sector last weekend.

Republican lawmakers have heavily criticized the Biden administration for the lack of attention to the matter. Members of the House Oversight Committee requested a field hearing due to the ongoing crisis.

“Every single GOP member of the House Oversight Committee has signed on to my letter calling for a field hearing on the New Mexico border to address the Biden Border Crisis. By end of FY2021, a population the size of New Mexico will have illegally entered the US,” said Rep. Yvette Herrell (R-NM-02) on Twitter.

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Cooper Moran is a reporter for The Star News Network. Follow Cooper on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].