Thread: Delaware - Mexican accused of smuggling 12 in pickup

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs ... /-1/NEWS01

Mexican accused of smuggling 12 in pickup
22-year-old entered U.S. illegally
By SUMMER HARLOW, The News Journal

Posted Saturday, December 9, 2006
A Mexican citizen who entered the United States illegally is accused of attempting to smuggle 12 unauthorized immigrants in a pickup truck from Texas to New Jersey.

Jesus Salinas Escamilla, 22, will remain in custody pending an indictment, Judge Mary Pat Thynge ruled Friday morning. If he had been released, he would have faced an immigration detention order.

Salinas Escamilla was detained Monday when a Delaware state trooper stopped him on I-95 for speeding, according to testimony from Michael Deshaies, a special agent with the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dover.

Salinas Escamilla, who was driving a truck registered in Arlington, Texas, presented a Mexican driver's license claiming his name was Israel Morales Hernandez.

Immigration officials were brought to the scene after the trooper realized that Salinas Escamilla and his passengers spoke little or no English, Deshaies said. All 13 were in this country illegally and were taken to the immigration office in Dover, he said.

According to Deshaies, Salinas Escamilla told immigration officials that he had agreed to transport people from Texas to New Jersey to earn money to pay back the smugglers who had helped him cross the Arizona border in March.

The 12 passengers, nine from Mexico and three from Colombia, are undergoing deportation proceedings, Deshaies said. He said he did not know whether any of the passengers had been deported already.

Salinas Escamilla could face up to 10 years in prison for illegally transporting the 12 passengers, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kravetz.

"It's no secret these types of smuggling offenses are very dangerous," he said. "He was the final cog in this smuggling operation after the illegal aliens crossed the border."

Salinas Escamilla's role in the operation was significant, Kravetz said, because without him, the truck's passengers never would have made their way from Texas to Delaware.

Salinas Escamilla has no criminal history, said public defender Christopher Koyste.

"He's a very nervous and scared individual," Koyste said, arguing that he wasn't a flight risk because he has an apartment and girlfriend in Arlington.

Thynge disagreed.

"He came into the United States through Arizona, and he can easily leave this country," she said. "He has contacts in the smuggling operation that can make it easy for him to do so."

So now these ILLEGAL ALIENS are to be called - Unauthorized? No more "undocumented" but "Unauthorized?"

A Mexican citizen who entered the United States illegally is accused of attempting to smuggle 12 unauthorized immigrants in a pickup truck from Texas to New Jersey.

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