A recipient of former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program benefits was arrested by Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents Wednesday.
The suspect, a female citizen of El Salvador, along with a male counterpart who is a U.S. Citizen, were caught attempting to smuggle four Mexican nationals across the border illegally, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) press release said.
Neither suspect has been named.
DACA recipients, sometimes called “Dreamers,” were children when they were brought to America illegally by their parents.
The Trump administration attempted to phase the program out, but was bombarded with lawsuits from civil rights groups. Upon taking office, President Joe Biden extended the program.
Wednesday was a busy day for Yuma Sector Border Patrol.
Along with that smuggling attempt, Border Patrol there thwarted three more separate smuggling attempts.
“First, at approximately 2:45 a.m., agents referred a California-plated Infiniti sedan to the secondary inspection area following a canine alert. In secondary, agents discovered a male driver and female passenger, both United States citizens, smuggling a Mexican national, who was later identified as Luis Hernandez-Huazo,” the press release said.
Huazo has a previous criminal record in the United States. He is an aggravated felon, and was convicted of child cruelty that resulted in injury/death in 2012.
The third smuggling bust was made when a 20-year-old female U.S. Citizen was stopped by border patrol, and four Mexican nationals and one El Salvadoran national were found stowed in her vehicle.
“Finally, at approximately noon, a Wellton agent assisted a Yuma County Sheriff’s deputy with a vehicle stop on the eastbound lanes of Interstate 8 near mile marker 32 and encountered yet another smuggling attempt,” the press release said. “A USBP canine handler responded to the stop and conducted a canine sniff of the vehicle. The canine alerted to the vehicle and, as a result, agents searched the vehicle and found three Mexican nationals hiding under clothes and bags on the back seat.”
Illegal border crossings, and thus Border Patrol’s encounters with illegal aliens crossing the border, have skyrocketed during the Biden presidency. Biden is notably soft on the issue of illegal immigration.
Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the administration’s “border czar,” finally visited the U.S. southern border with Mexico in El Paso, Texas.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to dabroscareports@gmail.com.