Illegal immigrant from Peru who was RELEASED into the US months ago has been charged with killing a Houston man, 40, found dead in his home - as migrants continue to pour through the US-Mexico border

A Peruvian migrant who illegally crossed the U.S. southern border with Mexico has been arrested in connection with the heinous murder of a Houston man who was found 'bludgeoned to death' in a Texas backyard.

Roberto Emilio Vasquez-Santamaria, 64, was processed for release with a Notice to Appear in court for immigration removal proceedings after multiple Customs and Border Protection sources told Fox News he 'crossed illegally into Eagle Pass.'

Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said that the victim was a 40-year-old Houston man, but are yet to identify him adding that a 'struggle' took place before he was found dead.

Vasquez-Santamaria is said to have been waiting his court date in 2025 and was transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement who released him into the care of a non-governmental organization and enrolled in monitoring via Alternatives to Detention, the outlet reported.

A Peruvian migrant has been arrested in connection with the heinous murder of a Houston man who was found 'bludgeoned to death' in a Texas backyard 

Sources speaking to Fox explained that Border Patrol does not determine the release policy of illegal immigrants into the U.S. and that agents are carrying out 'policies set by the Biden administration.' 

In May, a surge of illegal immigration activity across the U.S.-Mexico border had been taking place ahead of the end of pandemic-era public health order Title 42 - 10,000 a day at that point.

Numbers sharply dropped after the order ended and remained relatively low until June but have since seen a pivot in July and August. 

Sources told Fox there were 230,000 migrant encounters in August, 180,000 in July and 144,000 in June.

Those numbers don't show any signs of slowing with sources claiming 45,000 migrant encounters in the past five days alone as of Wednesday.

Earlier on Wednesday, footage of migrants waving and smiling as they walked through Eagle Pass was posted by Fox National Correspondent Bill Melugin.

'It's a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now. Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half,' he said on X (formerly twitter).

'Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge.'

The situation has grown so dire in Eagle Pass that on Wednesday officials issued a State of Emergency because of the migrant crisis. 

Officials said more than 4,000 illegal aliens entered the country in a day's span.  

The shocking imagery comes after a Mexican rail operator suspended northbound trains because so many migrants were hopping aboard freight cars at personal risk.

The rise in apprehensions come after levels dropped after the administration ended Title 42 after a long court fight and put in new procedures meant to lower incentives and push more migrants into an online application process.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman said about 4,000 people had crossed the border by Wednesday morning

According to a source with Texas Department of Public Safety, a large migrant caravan crossed the Rio Grande, with migrants held at the Eagle Pass bridge

 Large numbers of migrants were seen standing together at the border

Policy changes have fundamentally altered economic and other incentives, with new video emerging Monday of migrants cheering while hanging off the side of rolling freight trains on the way to the U.S. border.

Astounding footage of the FerroMex train was shot as the locomotive with hundreds in tow could be seen coming out of the Central Mexican city of Zacatecas as it made its way northbound on the 750-mile journey toward the U.S.

On Tuesday the company announced it was suspending runs in northern Mexico due to safety concerns.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the border, hundreds of 'dehydrated' migrants, including children, were found crammed into the back of a truck in Mexico after authorities heard their chilling cries.

Their desperate pleas to be saved from being sardined inside the metal prison were answered after the driver of the trailer stopped at a toll booth between the cities of Córdoba and Coatzacoalcos in the eastern state of Veracruz.

A gamma-ray device detected the presence of the 350 migrants inside the container with a vast majority from Guatemala, six were from Ecuador, three from Honduras and one was from El Salvador.

Those traveling as a family and minors were placed under the guardianship of the state's System for the Integral Development of the Family, Mexico's National Institute of Migration (INM) reported.

Last month, a Guatemalan immigrant who entered the U.S. in January and is accused of raping and murdering his 11-year-old neighbor says he was forced to do it by 'two black men who held him at gunpoint.'

Juan Carlos Garcia-Rodriguez, 18, appeared in court for the first time on Thursday after being accused of raping, strangling and hiding, Maria Gonzalez, 11, in a plastic bag shoved into a laundry basket on Aug 12.

Gonzalez's body was found by her father at their home in Pasadena, Texas, when he returned home from work.

Pasadena Police Department named Garcia-Rodriguez a 'person of interest' and the main suspect in the case - noting a key left behind in the little girl's home as a vital piece of evidence. 

Bail was denied for Garcia-Rodriguez in the case and according to prosecutors he came in voluntarily first denying the heinous incident and then admitting he had been involved, according to Fox News.

Migrants wait on the side of the US border after members of the US National Guard disassembled their encampment near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, 19 September 2023. There were 8,000 apprehensions of migrants at the southern border on Monday

The operator of Mexico 's largest railroad network partially shut down service following the deaths and injuries of at least half-dozen migrants who were attempting to reach the United States border

U.S. Customs and Border Protection data shows border agents have reported 1,973,092 encounters with migrants for unlawful entry at the southern border in fiscal year 2023, which spans from October 2022 to September 2023. Official figures for August and September have still not been released.

In comparison, 2,378,944 encounters were reported in the fiscal year 2022, an increase from 1,734,686 the previous fiscal year and just 458,088 in all of fiscal year 2021.

The Mexican Commission for Refugee Aid last week said it expects to receive 150,000 asylum requests this year, eclipsing the record of 129,000 that they came across in 2021.

Through August they already had 100,000 - 25 percent above the same period in 2021. More than half of the requests were received by the agency at Mexico's shared border with Guatemala.