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Border Patrol Agents Stepping Up Enforcement in Metro Baton Rouge

Jan 26, 2007 04:50 PM PST


Some of the busiest workers in our area in recent weeks appear to be border patrol agents.

There are eight of them working Metro Baton Rouge. Keep in mind, there are thousands of cars and trucks on the interstate just passing through. Those agents say since Hurricane Katrina, more and more of those vehicles are carrying illegal immigrants.

Border patrol agent, Gordon Solis is used to spinning his tires. He spends his mornings running the interstate in Livingston Parish, and when he thinks illegal immigrants are driving a truck and he pulls it over, he hopes the people inside don't run.

During a stop, Agent Solis asks a man if he had any knives or weapons. The man answered, "No." In the hours before many people go to work, Solis picked up eight people he suspects are illegal immigrants.

Solis tells one suspect, "Leva los manos." That means raise your hands, but it's not just manos rising. U.S. Attorney David Dugas says the number of illegal immigrants in Louisiana is also increasing.

Dugas says, "We've seen them more in transit, like what you saw today. Which is where they're passing through Baton Rouge, mostly destined for New Orleans for the construction trade."

When agents pull over people they think are aliens, sometimes, they're found running from something else.

"You may find drugs. You may find undocumented illegal aliens, you know, there could be any type of criminal activity going on," says Dugas.

*In Spanish,* an agent told a man he could make a call in a minute. And in cases like this one, there's a chance the person he calls is someone he's working for as an indentured servant, someone he has reason to pay back. Dugas says, "Either get their release or pay off the cost of smuggling them in."

After taking more than 70 suspected illegal immigrants into custody in one month, Agent Solis starts running again. U.S. Attorney David Dugas says another reason you're hearing more about illegal immigrants in Louisiana is because the federal government is giving more money to local police and sheriffs. That money is used to put extra officers on the road who specifically look for what they call "human smuggling."