Thread: 51 undocumented immigrants were found in a hotel

http://www.ktsm.com/story_news.sstg?c=1735

Undocumented Immigrant Bust
51 undocumented immigrants were found Tuesday afternoon crammed inside several small hotel rooms.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006 — El Paso County Sheriff's Deputies received a tip that lead to another large bust of undocumented immigrants.

"We picked up aliens in Fabens and they got a tip that some of the hotels in Downtown were involved," says Lt. Jack Waite, El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

That tip lead to the Gateway Hotel. Border Patrol, ICE and Sheriff's Deputies found 51 undocumented immigrants inside rooms on a single floor of the hotel.

"Rooms are small and designed for one or two people. They had 10-12 in one room...it's crowded, there's debris and their property. That many people in a room is a problem," says Waite.

Sheriff's Deputies say this same hotel was raided back in February, and resulted in the bust of over 120 other undocumented immigrants. One resident says this latest bust is a surprise, because it's been business as usual for the past few days.

"Typical amount of traffic...really nothing out of the ordinary," says Hotel Resident Gary Joiner.

If this is human smuggling, there may be a reason we're seeing more cases like it. Because it may be getting harder for drug smugglers.

"Because of the problems at the border, things are tighter along the border. Smugglers are looking for other ways to make money and so they may be switching to human smuggling," says Waite.

There were no kids among the 51 taken into custody. Most were men, and officials believe all are from Mexico.

Border Patrol agents are looking into whether this bust is related to a human smuggling ring.

I wonder if the 51 illegals were released into the general population or taken back to Mexico?

ICE will probably pay their motel bill and let them stay longer. Since this is the second bust at that motel, I think the motel should be shut down.

Originally Posted by WavTek

ICE will probably pay their motel bill and let them stay longer. Since this is the second bust at that motel, I think the motel should be shut down.

Hotels aren't required to validate the citizenship of people. If they tried, you can bet there would be some lawsuits.

But at the very least, I think the hotel management should've notified police of any suspicion they had of human smuggling going on. But honestly, I think human smugglers aren't going to try and make it obvious to anyone, thus, hotel employees likely weren aware.

Originally Posted by backseatdriver97

I wonder if the 51 illegals were released into the general population or taken back to Mexico?

They most likely were turned loose.