Four vanloads of illegals caught in Florida
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/loca ... ryid=51661
Homeland Security Nabs Dozens Of Undocumented Workers At Talleyrand
02/13/06 11 p.m. Report
By Kyle Meenan
First Coast News
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JACKSONVILLE, FL –- Four vanloads of undocumented workers tried to get past local security; many will be likely be deported.
It happened at the crack of dawn Sunday at Gate 11 of Talleyrand. The vans were from a Louisiana company, hired by a foreign ship to come aboard to do maintenance welding.
According to federal officials, an alert guard sensed a problem with the credentials of a number of the men aboard the vans.
The gate guard notified JSO's special Seaport Security Unit, who, in turn, called in the feds.
Soon, agents from U.S. Customs Enforcement and Border Protections were on the scene reviewing papers and interviewing the men.
"And it was determined that 27 of those subjects did not have (legal) status. They were in varying stages of undocumented status here in the United States," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Agent Dale Hickman.
The men were processed with state of the art technology to reveal their true identities.
"They used false identification. They gave false names. So the only way to really be sure is to check their fingerprints and the scan of their eyes," said Hickman.
One man had outstanding warrants in Texas. Four of the men are now facing federal charges. Two had been deported once before.
"So they were subject to federal indictment under re-entry charges. And the other two subjects had false border-crossing cards and alien registration cards in their possession, and those are both violations of federal law," said Hickman.
But the bigger issue here was Homeland Security and the system in place, that worked.
"In this situation, the Customs and Border Protection inspectors and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office did a phenomenal job. They stopped these people as they entered. They checked their identification and found there was question, and they referred them to the investigators, who showed up, and in concert with the other officials, were able to determine what the status of these individuals was," said Hickman.
"We're looking to neutralize any potential threats to the citizens of the United States. In a port environment there could be a commodity coming in, (or) going out. We really can't allow questionable individuals into these sorts of areas."
"To have 27 of them at the same time show up at the port -- that's never happened, to my knowledge, in Jacksonville before."
