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Arlington: Construction workers aid group left in parking lot

12:22 PM CDT on Monday, June 13, 2005
By ISABEL ROJAS / Al DÃÂ*a

Construction workers in Arlington aided some undocumented immigrants over the weekend after more than 50 of them were abandoned inside a trailer by a truck driver.

They were scared, hungry and thirsty but otherwise appeared all right, witnesses said.

Some apparently resumed their trek to the East Coast on Saturday because apparently neither police nor the Border Patrol saw them.

The immigrants were spotted by construction workers remodeling a building on Mayfield Road near State Highway 360.

"We saw two people walking there, and we thought it was strange. When we approached them, they started to run," said José RodrÃÂ*guez. "Those that didn't run were hungry and thirsty. We gave them water and food."

Lt. Blake Miller, a spokesman for the Arlington Police Department, said he heard rumors about a group of immigrants left abandoned, but he said he wasn't sure police got involved.

Immigration authorities in Dallas could not be reached Sunday.

Witnesses who talked to the immigrants said they were from South and Central America, heading for New York and New Jersey. The immigrants had paid as much as $15,000 to the smugglers for the trip to the East Coast.

They were left to fend for themselves when the truck driver stopped at a warehouse, unhitched the trailer and drove off, the immigrants told witnesses.

José Izaguirre, another construction worker, said the immigrants told him they were able to breathe through a few holes on the floor and ceiling while locked inside the trailer for several hours.

"They said the smugglers threw bottles of water through an opening in the roof, and there were holes on the top and the bottom so they could breathe," he said.

E-mail irojas@aldiatx.com