Thursday, July 10, 2008 9:23 PM CDT
Several alleged illegal immigrants detained



MATTOON — Eleven people were taken into federal custody at a local gas station Tuesday morning after authorities discovered they were apparently in the United States illegally.

A total of 24 people were first questioned by a deputy with the Coles County Sheriff’s Department, who discovered the group at the BP station on Miller Road near the Showplace 10 movie theater about 5 a.m. Tuesday, Sheriff Darrell Cox said.

After U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was notified, agents from its Springfield office arrived and detained the 11 people who will begin going through deportation proceedings, said Gail Montenegro, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The group was traveling in three separate vehicles and had apparently come from Florida to Illinois in search of farm work, Montenegro said. The people taken into custody were five men and one woman from Guatemala and five men from Mexico.


Cox said the deputy went to the station to stop a vehicle on an unrelated matter and noticed the large group of people there. The deputy became suspicious of the identity information he received from some of them, so the federal agency was notified, Cox explained.

Montenegro said two of members of the group were in the country legally and were released. Others released were six children ages 9 months to 3 years and five adults who are the children’s parents, she said.

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