EXCLUSIVE: 5-time illegal entrant admits ‘mistake’ that finally got him busted by ICE

EXCLUSIVE: An illegal immigrant who re-entered the U.S. five times said his drinking is the “mistake” that finally led to his arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement early Thursday morning.

Ernesto Alejandro Perez-Garcia, a Mexican national, was arrested by ICE in Redondo Beach, California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Perez-Garcia has a history of arrests dating to 2003 for alcohol-, controlled substance- and driving-related offenses, as well as making terroristic threats and illegally re-entering the U.S. ICE said he illegally entered the country five times and made four additional attempts to enter.

Fox News Digital witnessed ICE arrest Perez-Garcia on Thursday. When agents first encountered him on the Redondo Beach esplanade, he denied his identity. However, when confronted with a previous mugshot, Perez-Garcia acknowledged that he was the man they were seeking.

After ICE booked and processed him, Perez-Garcia told Fox News Digital that he lied to agents “to see if I could get away with it.” He said that after he was confronted with his mugshot, he realized, “I’m busted, you know, in other words, I’m f—ed.”

“I was trying to lie about it because I actually don’t got nothing there in Mexico right now, you know what I mean? I grew up right here, and this is what I know,” he said. Perez-Garcia also said his children live in the U.S. and that he has heard stories about how “so hard” it is to return to the U.S.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I already knew it was going to catch up to me; I just didn’t know when.”