DRUNK DRIVING CHECKPOINT NETS 22 SUSPECTED ILLEGALS

Staff and wire reports

GRANBY,NY (AP) — For the second time in less than five months, dozens of immigrant workers employed by Zappala Farms have been taken into custody for allegedly being in the country illegally.

Zappala Farms first came under fire in late May, when 22 of their employees were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. At that time, the owner of the farm, Cathy Zappala, told The Palladium-Times that she had appropriate documentation for all the field hands.

Friday evening, the Granby farm lost nearly two dozen more workers (44 since May 23) after a drunk driving check point netted 22 suspected illegal aliens, according to officials.

State police had set up the check point on a rural road in Granby, when they stopped a bus owned by a local farm carrying 22 passengers, said Mike Przybyl, a Border Patrol Service spokesman.

Troopers then called the Border Patrol to determine the bus passengers’ citizenship. Border Patrol agents found that 21 of the passengers were Mexican citizens, and the other was Guatemalan and all were in the country illegally, Przybyl said.

“It’s our understanding that they were working and living in Oswego County and were going from one place to another when they happened to run into this checkpoint,â€