Thread: Four vehicles carrying possible illegals crash

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Four vehicles carrying possible illegals crash

113 detained in two days in rash of accidents on snow-packed highways

By Joe Garner, Deborah Frazier, And Felix Doligosa Jr., Rocky Mountain News
March 22, 2006

Four vehicles packed with 42 suspected illegal Mexican immigrants overturned on snowpacked eastern Colorado highways within two hours early Tuesday, a day after two similar wrecks in the state.

Taken together, the six crashes highlighted Colorado's key role as a crossroads in the dangerous and often deadly transport of undocumented workers into this country.

Neither the rash of accidents nor the 113 suspected illegal immigrants arrested in two days came as a shock to federal enforcement officers, said the agent in charge of the Denver office of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.

"This is an everyday thing for us," said Jeff Copp, the official with the agency that investigates suspected illegal immigrants.

Besides the four rollovers Tuesday, 17 suspected illegal immigrants were in an SUV that overturned Monday on Interstate 70 one mile east of Byers.

That wreck eerily coincided with hearings on two bills before the Colorado General Assembly that would crack down on human smuggling and trafficking.

In addition, State Trooper Chris Romine said 25 suspected illegal immigrants were in a Ford Econoline van that collided with a semi-truck Monday night on Interstate 76 at Colorado 71 near Brush. Twenty-one of the passengers fled across snow-covered fields to a McDonald's, and the four others tried to check into a motel, until officers took both groups into custody.

The 25, men and women mostly in their 20s, were being held Tuesday in the Morgan County Jail, Sheriff Jim Crone said.

Immigration officials will pick them up Thursday, the sheriff said.

"It's not impossible to have that many bodies inside a vehicle," said Trooper Eric Wynn, a CSP spokesman. "I think (the accidents) you're seeing now are because we have adverse weather conditions."

Wynn said that, on average, the State Patrol comes in contact with about 500 suspected illegal immigrants a week.

Timing the spring planting

Tuesday morning's rollovers, the State Patrol said, included one near Seibert on I-70 and three near Brush - two on Interstate 76 and one on U.S. 6 at the junction with I-76. All four vehicles were eastbound, and at least two of them had Arizona license plates, according to the CSP.

A Chevrolet Suburban that was one of the vehicles to wreck near Brush carried a family of five, the parents and three children, Romine said. The CSP identified the parents as suspected illegal immigrants, while an immigration official said the children are U.S. citizens.

Near Seibert, the driver was exiting the icy interstate, slid past a stop sign and flipped over one and a half times down a 50-foot slope, said CSP Cpl. Kirk Preston. The driver, who did not have a driver's license or insurance, was cited for careless driving, Preston said.

He estimated 15 vehicles loaded with illegal immigrants travel on I-70 during a typical, eight-hour shift. The high season for so-called "coyotes," the human smugglers, comes in March as they transport agricultural workers to eastern farmers before the start of spring planting.

After the accident, several passengers walked to the Seibert Travel Plaza, a convenience store, to buy chips and soda.

"All the time, they come here by the truckloads," said clerk Tammy Goodwin, who takes them to be illegal immigrants because they speak Spanish and stock up on food and 12-packs of soda.

"And I can't understand them," Goodwin said. "The only word I know is baño."

Ambulance driver Jerry Guy said the wreck was the third in the area since December involving suspected illegal immigrants.

"This needs to be hammered," Guy said. "This illegal stuff is a bunch of crap. Who is paying for the medical bills? It's us."

Another form of 'March madness'

But Brush residents took a different viewpoint because the illegal immigrants are essential to the local agricultural and service-industry work force.

"A lot of the undocumented people work very hard at the feedlots and meat-packing plant," said Jamie Givens, who works with children for Morgan County schools.

Brush City Administrator Monty Torres said convoys of suspected undocumented workers heading east on I-76 were so common that locals call them "the March run" or "March madness."

And, he said, the community also relies on undocumented workers.

"They work in jobs that other people don't want," Torres said. "We don't have too many troubles with them."

State troopers routinely pick up passengers abandoned along I-76 after rollovers and take them to coffee, said Marlene Deslauriers, a manager at the Tomahawk Truck Stop along I-76 at Brush.

In addition to the wrecks, troopers also stopped two other vehicles Tuesday morning carrying suspected illegal immigrants on I-70 on the Western Slope. A van loaded with 11 had pulled to the side of the road near Glenwood Springs when officers approached it to offer assistance, but troopers pulled over a second van near Wolcott because of a traffic violation.

The State Patrol said immigration authorities were summoned to the accident scenes and pullovers.

"They were going to respond to all of them," said Master Trooper Ron Watkins, a CSP spokesman.

Most returning to Mexico

In Brush, the 32 victims of the Tuesday rollovers were held at an ICE short-term holding facility, although some were transported during the day to the agency's holding facility in Aurora, according to an ICE spokesman who declined to give his name.

Another spokesman said most of the people involved in the accidents had admitted to entering the United States illegally from Mexico and are being allowed to return home.

Tim Counts, an ICE spokesman in Washington, said each suspected illegal immigrant is interviewed and identified by taking fingerprints and photographs.

"Simply being in the country illegally is an administrative, rather than a criminal, violation," Counts said.

Authorities said human smugglers sometimes thread 2X4s through a vehicle's frame or suspension system so it won't sag and tip off police that it may be overloaded. But that makes the vehicle more prone to roll over.

However, Wynn said he had no early reports that the vehicles involved in the rollovers had been altered.

Meanwhile, the series of wrecks sharpened the focus on the debate about immigration reform.

The suspected illegal immigrants "are the victims of unfair, unworkable laws," said Polly Baca, chief executive officer of the Latin American Research and Service Agency in Colorado.

"It's unfair to label them anything other than what they are: poor, uneducated workers looking for a job to provide a better life for themselves and their families," she said. "It's unconscionable they are being exploited by those who would take advantage of their situation in life."

She said the coyotes are notoriously contemptuous of human life, ripping seats out of vehicles and packing in illegal workers for high-speed dashes across the country from job to job.

"It's a tragedy," Baca said. "They are uneducated people who cannot begin to understand the complexity of our immigration laws. They are low-income workers who are coming to the United States to try to fuel our economy."

Detention facility packed

At the state Capitol on Tuesday, the Senate Democratic Caucus received a briefing from the State Patrol about their attempts to stop the flow of illegal immigration across Colorado, which sits at the intersection of east- west and north-south interstates.

State troopers said there is little they can do when illegal immigrants are smuggled into Colorado. In most cases, illegal immigrants are released if they're not wanted on criminal charges.

The 360-bed ICE detention center in Aurora serves Colorado and Wyoming, and it's usually packed.

"We often get the response that the facility is full and they're not able to process the number of illegal aliens we come in contact with," said Terry Campbell of the State Patrol. "Generally speaking, nothing is done, unless in the most serious cases."

The federal government does little to detain and deport illegal immigrants smuggled into the Colorado, in part because of a lack of resources and overworked staffs, said Michael Acree, deputy executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety.

"There is no doubt that as we are meeting, there are other trucks filled with illegal aliens going through Colorado, but they didn't get in an accident," Acree said.

State officials likened federal immigration laws to a "catch-and-release policy."

"It's a very frustrating situation," Campbell said. "In every situation in which we come in contact with illegal aliens, the vehicles are overloaded beyond manufacturers' standards. Then we have to ask how are these people cared for. It's tough - we take these people to the nearest town when ICE can't respond and say, 'You're on your own.'

"The bottom line is that we need more resources to deal with this. They're robbing all of law enforcement across the state of the man-hours we feel we need to do our broader mission."

Chronology of crashes

Other accidents involving vehicles carrying illegal immigrants:

• March 12, 2005: Two immigrants die when a pickup smuggling 14 people crashes in Mineral County.

• Jan. 27, 2004: Six die in a rollover accident on I-76 in Weld County.

• July 17, 2003: One killed and seven injured when a smuggler crashes a minivan on I-70 in Lincoln County.

• July 10, 2002: One killed and four injured when a van crashes 20 miles south of Alamosa.

• March 24, 2002: 28 immigrants involved in separate accidents on I-70 and U.S. 34.

• March 14, 2002: Two killed when a Ford Escort slides on a patch of ice in Broomfield.

• March 11, 2002: A Mexican national killed and four injured when the minivan he was in rear-ends a trash truck being towed on I-70 near Golden.

• April 21, 2001: No serious injuries when a truck transporting 11 illegal immigrants is in an accident in Grand Junction; the driver flees.

• March 12, 2001: Six passengers killed and 13 injured when a van carrying 19 people from Mexico is hit by a tractor-trailer on I-76 in Sedgwick County.

• Jan. 22, 2000: Three killed and eight injured when a van packed with 18 Mexican nationals crashes east of Walsenburg.

The 360-bed ICE detention center in Aurora serves Colorado and Wyoming, and it's usually packed.

Wynn said that, on average, the State Patrol comes in contact with about 500 suspected illegal immigrants a week.

Hmmmm...a 360 bed facility in an area that can round up 500 in a week. Something is wrong with this picture.

• March 12, 2005: Two immigrants die when a pickup smuggling 14 people crashes in Mineral County.

• Jan. 27, 2004: Six die in a rollover accident on I-76 in Weld County.

• July 17, 2003: One killed and seven injured when a smuggler crashes a minivan on I-70 in Lincoln County.

• July 10, 2002: One killed and four injured when a van crashes 20 miles south of Alamosa.

• March 24, 2002: 28 immigrants involved in separate accidents on I-70 and U.S. 34.

• March 14, 2002: Two killed when a Ford Escort slides on a patch of ice in Broomfield.

• March 11, 2002: A Mexican national killed and four injured when the minivan he was in rear-ends a trash truck being towed on I-70 near Golden.

• April 21, 2001: No serious injuries when a truck transporting 11 illegal immigrants is in an accident in Grand Junction; the driver flees.

• March 12, 2001: Six passengers killed and 13 injured when a van carrying 19 people from Mexico is hit by a tractor-trailer on I-76 in Sedgwick County.

• Jan. 22, 2000: Three killed and eight injured when a van packed with 18 Mexican nationals crashes east of Walsenburg.

And people are still wanting to give illegal aliens drivers licenses.