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I-40 traffic stops net nearly 90 illegals
Source: AP


ALBUQUERQUE -- Night after night for the last eight days, deputies on routine patrol have found large groups of illegals passing through the Albuquerque area.
They've found so many, even the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department says the large numbers are highly unusual.

Deputies, who say they aren’t looking illegal immigrants, are finding them a dozen at a time during routine traffic stops on Interstate 40, usually in the early morning hours.

Immigrant advocates, however, question whether the traffic stops might be the result of racial profiling of Hispanic drivers.

“This is a major transit area for everything,” Bernalillo County Undersheriff Sal Baragiola said. “Goods, people, drugs."

The undocumented immigrants are packed into vans and trucks.

“We'll see a vehicle that's has a failure to maintain a lane,” Baragiola said. “The deputy’s initial reaction is maybe the driver is drunk, and they'll pull the vehicle over."

Consider 63 illegal aliens found between May 3 and 8 and handed over to Border Patrol, all on a 12-mile stretch east of Albuquerque between mile markers 173 and 185.

May 4 was the biggest day:
• 1:10 am, 11 detained at mile marker 183.
• Fifty minutes later, 12 more just two miles down the interstate.
• Then, at 2:30 am, another 12 undocumented immigrants also at mile marker 185.

In the past two days, deputies have corralled an additional 24 suspected illegals.

Connie Marintez of LULAC said immigrants legal or otherwise are on the move this time of year.

“This is harvest time and people are coming to work,” Marintez said. “They know businesses are looking for cheap labor."

“LULAC’s concern is what the sheriff's are doing is racial profile anyone who's Hispanic."

The sheriff's department insists these are legitimate traffic stops.

“We don't do roadblocks to enforce immigration laws,” Baragiola said. “We come across them as a result of traffic violations, unsafe vehicles."

In addition, the sheriff's department suggests it may be saving lives by enforcing the laws and stopping vehicles pointing to recent fatal accidents involving vanloads of undocumented immigrants.

The Border Patrol is reporting a 25-percent increase in the number of illegals detained in the region since this time last year.