Thread: The gamble of being illegal

EXCLUSIVE: The gamble of being illegal

By EDWARD SIFUENTES esifuentes@nctimes.com

Saturday, September 24, 2011 5:00 pm | Loading…

A curious thing happened to a woman on her way to a North County casino two weeks ago.

Out for a night of gambling, she somehow ended up in the custody of the U.S. Border Patrol and probably was deported.

What happened that night to Maria Diaz is not exactly clear.

A man who asked to remain anonymous sent an email about the incident to the North County Times on Sept. 15. The letter writer wrote that his aunt, Diaz, went to Pala Casino on a tour bus to have a good time.

"But that is not what happened," he wrote. "Her night of fun turned into a nightmare."

For some reason, the casino's security personnel asked Diaz for an ID; she showed them a Honduran passport.

A spokesman for the casino said security officers did detain Diaz, but he declined to say why.

Customer privacy, he said.

"We do not comment on those incidents out of respect for our guests," the casino spokesman said.

Security personnel apparently suspected there was something wrong with the passport.

"Somehow, they didn't think the passport was legit and they detained her," the letter writer wrote. "And they called Border Patrol because they thought she was undocumented."

Diaz was, indeed, in the country illegally, but the passport was good, he wrote.

Maybe she overstayed her permit to be in the country. It's not exactly clear what was wrong with the passport, because the writer of the email has failed to respond to numerous invitations to speak with the North County Times.

Pala Casino underscored that its personnel did not call the Border Patrol. Casino security called the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, the casino spokesman said.

Sheriff's Sgt. Bob Bishop said the department did receive a call from the casino that night regarding a patron who had a suspected fake passport, but that the department did not send deputies to investigate.

Instead, the department routed the call to the Border Patrol because bad passports are not the sheriff's business, he said.

And here's the mystery: When asked, the Border Patrol said last week that it could not come up with the incident in its computer system.

The agency could not verify that it sent agents to Pala Casino that night or that it took a woman into custody or whether she had been deported.

"Our intelligence unit ... couldn't find a name match to confirm that event happened," a spokesman for the Border Patrol said. "To complete a search by other means than a name, I need more information, such as an alien number or a passport number."

Perhaps the woman was using a fake name, and when agents found her real identity, they placed the case under her real name and not Maria Diaz, the spokesman said.

The Consulate General of Honduras in San Diego could not be reached for comment.

For the anonymous letter writer, his aunt's saga became a tale of a customer wronged by a careless casino.

"What (gives) a business like Pala Casino ... the right to call the Border Patrol and have their customers deported; they can't do that, can they?" he wrote.

It is a cautionary tale, a warning to other illegal immigrants who would visit the casino, he said.

It's also an example of the state all illegal immigrants live in, of the gamble they each take by being here ---- driving to work, walking into a bar, asking for a job, stepping into a clinic or visiting a casino.

Contact staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511

http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/sdcou ... z1YvDJIfUV

What (gives) a business like Pala Casino ... the right to call the Border Patrol and have their customers deported; they can't do that, can they?" he wrote.

Obviously they can.

Originally Posted by pattyk

What (gives) a business like Pala Casino ... the right to call the Border Patrol and have their customers deported; they can't do that, can they?" he wrote.

Obviously they can.

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Illegal aliens have an instantaneous INFORMATION GRAPEVINE and when something like this happens it travels across the entire country within hours. They monitor these type of events and in their spanish-speaking blogs really tear this stuff up.

I hope it goes virile and through misinterpretations goes out as a major alarm that casinos across the country are now interrogating anyone that looks like an illegal alien and they will be deported straight from the casinos.

Just do it on their way out the door, and not on the way in. Let them leave behind the money first.

It's also an example of the state all illegal immigrants live in, of the gamble they each take by being here ---- driving to work, walking into a bar, asking for a job, stepping into a clinic or visiting a casino.

If only that were the case everywhere in the USA!

I wish this would happen in a welfare office.

Originally Posted by pattyk

I wish this would happen in a welfare office.

And Walmart...
And Best Buy.....
And Everywhere the "poor" Illegal aliens and their jackpots go...
Some nights, you hear not a lick of English at the Casino down the road from me. Just can't get away from the invasion..

"What (gives) a business like Pala Casino ... the right to call the Border Patrol and have their customers deported; they can't do that, can they?" he wrote.

What gives illegals the right to think we can't enforce our own laws? I went to the Pala Casino web site... looks like a pretty swanky place, if indeed this woman's passport was a fake then they had EVERY right to deny her service. And if the passport was fake, using it to claim a jackpot ( just as an example) constitutes FRAUD!

What (gives) a business like Pala Casino ... the right to call the Border Patrol and have their customers deported; they can't do that, can they?" he wrote.

It is a cautionary tale, a warning to other illegal immigrants who would visit the casino, he said.

What gives illegal invaders "the right" to invade our sovereignty and strut around as if they own the place!!! The sense of entitlement is appalling!

This should be a "cautionary tale" for illegal invaders period! Hopefully someday soon, this will be the norm!