San Ysidro

An illegal alien, caught sprinting for the Mexican border, was arrested Monday morning on suspicion of raping a woman he was seen with moments earlier, a San Diego Police Department spokesman said.

Roberto Hernandez Ramos, 30, of Veracruz, Mexico, was being held on $25,000 bail in County Jail downtown on suspicion of rape, a jail spokesman said. He will be arraigned Wednesday.

Border Patrol agents first spotted Hernandez about 9 a.m. in the 2300 block of Monument Road, about 2 miles west and 120 yards north of the San Ysidro border crossing, while he pulled a woman by the arm toward the Mexican border, police spokesman Bill Robinson said. The woman resisted his efforts and, when agents approached, Hernandez ran for the border but was caught, he said.

The woman, 25, an illegal immigrant from Nayarit, Mexico, told authorities that the man had raped her earlier, Robinson said.

She had apparently met the suspect Sunday after both were taken from a northbound bus and were returned to Tijuana by the Border Patrol, Robinson said. The pair allegedly crossed into the United States again Sunday night.

The woman was taken to Pomerado Hospital for treatment and tests, Robinson said.