Suspected illegal immigrants caught near Marana High School parking lot
DAVID L. TEIBEL
Published: 05.15.2008

A group of 11 suspected illegal immigrants, part of a three-vehicle convoy, were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol agents after they abandoned their SUV Wednesday morning in the Marana High School parking lot, a Border Patrol spokeswoman said Thursday.
School was not in session and no students were there when the agents swept up the suspects, said Senior Border Patrol Agent Dove Haber.
Haber said some staff members may have been in the school parking lot when the arrests were made about 6:50 a.m. Wednesday.
She said the school grounds are not a drop-off point for illegal immigrants being transferred to other vehicles or for any other reason and the Wednesday incident was unusual.
The group was being followed by a Customs and Border Protection helicopter, Haber said.
"The group bailed out of the vehicle there, they saw a parking lot and they just bailed out and tried to hide in the brush," Haber said. "It had nothing to do with the school. They just saw a parking lot."
Neither Marana High School nor Marana Unified School District authorities could be reached for comment Thursday afternoon on the incident.
Haber said the helicopter's crew spotted three vehicles turning off North Silverbell Road near Marana and followed them.
The driver of one of the vehicles, a 2008 Ford Expedition, broke away from the other two and headed into the school parking lot at 12000 W. Emigh Road, where the occupants got out and tried to hide, Haber said.
Agents on the ground converged on the parking lot, rounded them up and took them into custody without incident, she said. Haber did not know from what country the 11 came.
She said all were being processed for repatriation to their homeland or to face charges.
The helicopter crew members thought the three vehicles were being used to smuggle drugs into the U.S. No drugs were found in the Expedition and people in the other two vehicles got away, Haber said.

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