It’s not often that the Border Patrol encounters people begging to be sent to Mexico, but that’s what happened Wednesday when agents in Arizona stopped a vehicle and found two men who said they were illegal immigrants and begged to be sent immediately back to Mexico.
It turns out they were escaped convicts fleeing a Colorado prison camp.
Agents say they nabbed Jose Rodriguez, 35, and Raul Guzman, 42, during an immigration stop nears Sells, Arizona.
They found a 30-year-old woman driving, and she had two passengers with her.
“The two men initially claimed to be illegal aliens wishing to be immediately returned to Mexico. Ultimately, they admitted to agents they were U.S. citizens and had escaped from a prison,” the Border Patrol said in a statement.
Agents arrested the driver and the two men, and turned them over to the U.S. Marshals Service.
The men had been serving sentences at a minimum-security prison camp as part of the federal prison complex in Florence, Colorado.
Rodriguez was serving a six-year term for distribution charges, while Guzman was serving 10 years for similar charges, according to the Pueblo Chieftain newspaper. Rodriguez had been due for release next April. Guzman was due in 2027.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.