Thread: Illegal Asian immigrants caught in Goliad County TX VIA MEXI

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Illegal Asian immigrants caught in Goliad County

May 25, 2005
ROBIN M. FOSTER
Victoria Advocate

GOLIAD - Goliad County wrote a new chapter Tuesday in its ongoing dealings with human smuggling. Sheriff Robert DeLaGarza said more than a dozen Asians who appear to be illegal immigrants were caught traveling through south Goliad County by a deputy patrolling an area north of Sarco.


DeLaGarza said the suspected illegals had passports from the Republic of China. It appears they are obtaining passports to enter Mexico as tourists, then making their way to the United States border, he said.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent who picked up the immigrants later in the day told DeLaGarza the agency is seeing more and more Chinese coming across the Mexican border.

A spokesman for U.S. Border Patrol confirmed that 13 Chinese illegal immigrants were picked up in Goliad County. Rogelio Cervantes, spokesman for the Rio Grande Sector of U.S. Border Patrol, said they will be held for deportation proceedings from the agency's Corpus Christi station.

DeLaGarza's department, as well as the sheriff's departments in neighboring Refugio and Bee counties, has been working with residents of the Sarco area in south Goliad County to crack down on the flow of illegal immigrants through their community. Residents there are concerned that the human smugglers who are driving the illegals through could also be transporting drugs, weapons or terrorists.

DeLaGarza said Deputy Jim Garner was on patrol when he spotted the vehicle containing the Chinese immigrants headed north on Farm-to-Market Road 2441. As he pursued the pick-up, the driver stopped and fled into the brush, DeLaGarza said. The deputy found about 10 people hiding in the rear of the pick-up under a burlap tarp. Three others, all young women, were riding inside the truck, he said. All of the people appear to be in their teens and early 20's, the sheriff said.

# Robin M. Foster is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact her at

361-275-6319 or cueroadv@vicad.com.

At this very moment there is a large contingent of Chinese soliders in Mexico. The border with Mexico is the singlel largest threat to U.S. homeland security since the founding of this great nation.