Close to a dozen illegal immigrants, including a man previously convicted of drug charges, were apprehended by Border Patrol agents in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on Monday, according to reports.
The arrests came after agents in Munising stopped a van, mlive.com reported. The driver and nine passengers admitted they were in the United States illegally and were taken to the Border Patrol station in Sault Ste. Marie.
The agents discovered during processing that four of those men had been removed from the U.S. One of them, Jose Bernal-Medeles of Mexico, was convicted of drug charges in both Minnesota and Wisconsin and had been deported three times, WWJ reported.
“Today the men and women of the United States Border Patrol made Munising safer by removing a convicted illegal alien drug dealer and nine others from the streets,” said Sault Ste. Marie Acting Patrol Agent in Charge Andrew Halonen.
Bernal-Medeles and the three other men who had been deported were turned over to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations. The remaining men were being held pending further proceedings, mlive.com reported.