Thread: Highway stops yielding illegal aliens

Highway stops yielding illegal aliens
Sunday, September 11, 2005

By Cindi Lash, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
WHEELING, W.Va. -- The van was shabby, and the blinds on its side windows were drawn tight.

Ohio County Sheriff's Deputy Brandon Groves had pulled the hulking vehicle over in early-morning darkness after it sped past him at 12 mph over the 55-mph limit on Interstate 70. Groves approached the driver's window and asked for identification, but the driver didn't respond, then said "no'' when asked if he spoke English.

Peering into the back, Groves saw several faces staring back at him. When Groves ordered them out, milk jugs filled with urine spilled onto the road along with 17 apprehensive people from Mexico.

With the help of a Spanish-speaking deputy, investigators learned that all of the 18 people, including a 17-year-old girl and a 9-year-old boy, admitted to entering the United States illegally. Several of them were related, and they'd all been on their way from Missouri to work in New York City, Sheriff Tom Burgoyne said.

"They were lying all over the van," Burgoyne said. "We're sure [the driver was] stopping only for gas and not allowing people out.''

That traffic stop, at 1:38 a.m. Aug. 25, was the sixth time since May 3 that Ohio County deputies encountered illegal immigrants on the 14-mile stretch of I-70 that bisects West Virginia's Panhandle between Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Their destinations included New York, California, New Jersey, Baltimore and Columbus, Ohio. Some told investigators they'd been picked up on a street corner in the Bronx and were paying about $300 each to be driven to Los Angeles for work. All of those detained and turned over to federal immigration authorities were from Mexico or Central American countries.

Burgoyne, who headed Wheeling's FBI office for 27 years before becoming Ohio County sheriff in 2001, said he remembered no other incidents involving illegal immigrants in the Panhandle since he's been in office. The upswing this summer has prompted him to dub the highway "an artery for illegal aliens."

In addition to those incidents on I-70, West Virginia State Police detained two illegal immigrants this week in Preston County, near Kingwood, W.Va.

Pennsylvania State Police said they, too, had found increasing numbers of illegal immigrants in traffic stops in recent months, particularly on I-70 and Interstate 80. During one four-day period in May, troopers around the state stopped and detained 117 illegal aliens while running a special enforcement detail.

In the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, officials with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement regional office, which serves Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, have arrested about 1,000 illegal immigrants. Those numbers are about the same as for the previous year, a spokesman said, but a breakdown of where the arrests occurred was not available.

Law enforcement officials credit stepped-up, post-Sept. 11, 2001, vigilance by police for the increase in detentions and arrests.

"It's about homeland security. We wanted to be more proactive with these issues," said Pennsylvania Trooper Wayne Kline, who oversees Operation Shield, a program state police proposed after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The program, which began in November, has trained more than 150 troopers to examine documents, ask specific questions and spot evidence of trafficking in illegal immigrants and other illegal activity during traffic stops.

"I can't say its a large number [of illegal immigrants] more, but we're getting more," Kline said. "Before 9/11, if I stopped you for speeding, I would be less likely to ask for identification of your two passengers. Now, we're trying to be proactive, taking steps to identify everyone in the car."

Local law enforcement officials acknowledge that numbers of illegal immigrants arrested here might seem insignificant when compared with the more than 230,000 illegal aliens detained across the country by the ICE's office of detention and removal during its 2003 fiscal year, the last year for which those statistics were available.

"It's not the never-ending tide" of illegal immigration that the ICE and other agencies have to combat in Arizona, California and other border states, Burgoyne said. Nor did any of the people detained by his department turn out to be fugitives or hardened criminals when checked against computer databases.

But criminals and terrorists can pop up anywhere, he said, adding that simply being in the country illegally is a crime.

"After all those years I spent in the FBI, I worry about how easy it is to get in here," he said, describing a scenario in which a terrorist posing as a migrant worker could enter and move about the country.

Burgoyne and his deputies said they were also worried about the exploitation of illegal immigrants by people who transport and hire them. They're aware of cases in border states in which immigrants died of thirst in overheated trucks or were killed in crashes.

"This is probably how it's always been, with [illegal] people passing through. But I have told my deputies to be alert," said Burgoyne, who spent 33 years with the FBI. "They're getting caught here, and my stance is that we're not going to let them go."

That stance has twice put his department at odds with federal ICE agents, who, according to deputies' reports, questioned why deputies had detained illegal immigrants whose names did not appear in computer databases of wanted criminals, fugitives or terror suspects.

"At first, they were telling us to let them go," Burgoyne said, adding that ICE officials June 21 questioned who would pay the $50-per-person daily charge to house detainees in West Virginia's Northern Regional Jail in Moundsville. He, in turn, balked at freeing people who might have given false names and other background information without investigating them further.

"ICE said, 'Let them go,' on one night. The deputy called me and I said, 'No, do not let them go,' " he said. "What do I do if we let them go, knowing that they are illegal, and then they hold up the local liquor store and shoot two people?"

Deputies said they then contacted the ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center in Vermont, the national 24-hour facility that provides police with a computer database to search for information about illegal immigrants.

ICE agents took custody of the immigrants detained and held by Ohio County deputies in that incident and in all of the others since May.

But Burgoyne said he was so troubled that he requested in June and will continue to push for a meeting with ICE agents, the U.S. attorney in Wheeling and possibly other law enforcement officials.

Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman at the ICE's national headquarters in Washington, D.C., and Michael Gilhooly, a spokesman at the ICE's Law Enforcement Support Center, said last week that they were not aware of Burgoyne's request.

On Friday, Gilhooly said Richard Boronyak, the agent in charge of the Pittsburgh regional office, "will reach out to the sheriff [this week] and address his concerns."

Gilhooly said ICE agents at the support center did run the names of the detained immigrants through their database to determine whether they were wanted or believed to be threats to national security. But because the database cannot provide information about people who've never been entered into it, agents came to Wheeling to collect the detainees, obtain their photographs and fingerprints and start proceedings against them, he said.

"Clearly, we do arrest people who are simple illegal aliens, but we work within the priorities of the agency, as does any law enforcement agency," said Gilhooly, whose center received 667,500 inquiries in 2004 from law enforcement officials around the county.

"If we're involved in arresting criminal aliens who have re-entered the United States, an alien who's arrested for a simple speeding ticket may not be the priority," he said. "But we certainly respond and gather the information on them. There are major highways there, and people use those highways to move about the United States."

Gilhooly said the immigrants detained in Wheeling were charged with being in the country illegally, but he declined to say what happened to them.

Generally, detainees are treated like suspects arrested for other offenses. Based on the circumstances, they might be jailed, released on bond or released on their own recognizance with an order to appear for a hearing before a federal immigration judge. The judge may order immigrants removed, but their appeal process can take years.

Immigrants who are released but don't appear for hearings are subject to detention if they are picked up again.

Gilhooly said investigators would pursue information about drivers and owners of vehicles used to transport some of the Wheeling immigrants, saying ICE agents are involved in a number of ongoing criminal investigations in this area.

"Therein lies a tragedy of people entering the United States illegally. They place themselves in the hands of people with no concern for their welfare and they have no recourse if they do find a job with dangerous or unhealthy conditions," he said. "The system is meant to work when people enter legally."

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/569384.stm

Originally Posted by Scubayons

The judge may order immigrants removed, but their appeal process can take years.

That is one area where I believe there should be a clear distinction between rights of citizens and non-citizens. Maybe, at most allow one appeal to a 3 judge panel if the illegal asserts that he/she really was here legally and did just lose the documentation, etc. Without an appeal it shouldn't take more than a few days to get them out and with an appeal it shouldn't take more than about 3 weeks. I think Congress can fix this. And, hold them in detention until the hearing(s). If they didn't bother to enter legally, they certainly aren't going to bother to show up to be deported legally.

I was just going to post this story, but you beat me to it.

This is very unusual for this article to appear in the liberal rag Pittsburgh Post Gazette. We are getting at least one article a day in our other newspaper the Tribune Review which is more moderate to conservative.

I used to say I could go months without seeing a Mexican around where I live in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh, but just a few days ago I saw two running for the trolley.

steelerbabe, what are we going to do!!!!!!!

Coming to a Neighborhood in your area soon.

Darlene: Saw a couple of Mexicans the other at the store speaking Spanish and my stomach felt sick. I can tell you as an American citizen, born in Washington, D.C. I am jumping through hoops to get my drivers license here in Pa. This is how it started back in Northern Va. with seeing a few and within a couple of years we were over run

I'm laughing--Steeler you better thank GOD you don't live in Texas! You will be next to people chattering in Spanish every day, 100 times per day

Originally Posted by Darlene

I was just going to post this story, but you beat me to it.

This is very unusual for this article to appear in the liberal rag Pittsburgh Post Gazette. We are getting at least one article a day in our other newspaper the Tribune Review which is more moderate to conservative.

I used to say I could go months without seeing a Mexican around where I live in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh, but just a few days ago I saw two running for the trolley.

steelerbabe, what are we going to do!!!!!!!

Coming to a Neighborhood in your area soon.

Sorry Darlene.
Well it is not every once in a while for me. I see, illegals. Every day, alot from Hounduras. and believe me, i know. I have even ask a few, and they said they was here illegally.

You should not just assume that if you see Mexicans or other Hispanics that ipso facto they are illegal.

It is a tip off however that you should start petitioning employers to use DHS' Basic Pilot. Have your own legislators make sure that all government contractors do. Begin doing watch to make sure that if a day labor pick up point starts employers are publicised if they do not check for work American authorization.

Bob C: Just to refresh your memory, I recently moved from Northern Va. with MS-13 living in my neighborhood. For eight years I had the privledge of living between two flop houses with between 15-20 illegals in both. I moved here to Western Pa. to raise my children in a safe environment. I don't want to see a good thing ruined because of lax immigration enforcement.