http://www.winfieldcourier.com/w051015/Fri1.html

Traffic stop nets 22 illegal immigrants
By SHANE T. FARLEY
Nearly two dozen illegal immigrants, all crammed into one SuperCab truck, were arrested near Strother Field Thursday night following a routine traffic stop, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Twenty-two people, including the driver, were taken into custody and turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The vehicle contained 18 Mexican men, one Honduran man, one woman and two juveniles, according to Trooper Bob LeVelle of the patrol.

“They were all packed in there pretty good,� he said. “There were seven or eight riding in the� truck’s cab.

He described those arrested as “pretty cooperative� but added they wanted to share few details of their time in the United States.

By this morning, four of the detainees, including the two juveniles, were being returned to Mexico, according to Carl Rusnok, a spokesperson with the immigration and customs office in Dallas.

At least some of those arrested were related to one another and had been working in Ulysses for a time, LeVelle said. The truck, which had Arizona license plates, was en route to Kentucky, investigators learned through an interpreter.

In many instances, smugglers charge large sums of money to transport overloaded vehicles full of immigrants into the country. Rusnok could not say if the Cowley County case was a smuggling incident but said, “That matter is under investigation.�

Rusnok said the details of the case were disturbing but not out of the ordinary, though he did acknowledge that “22 in a SuperCab is high.� Dangerous situations are often created when that many people pile into one vehicle.

“In this case, they were packed in so tightly they had to hold up the tailgate,� Rusnok said. “Obviously, if there had to be a sudden stop or turn, it could have created a real tragedy.�

LeVelle first spotted the vehicle as it traveled on U.S. 160. As he pursued, he noticed the driver of the truck was having problems keeping to one lane.

Around 9:30 p.m., a stop was made as the 1993 GMC SuperCab, which had a topper over the bed, was southbound on U.S. 77.

“When you see that many people in the cab, there is anticipation of seeing more in the back,� LeVelle said.

Officers from the Cowley County Sheriff’s Department and the Arkansas City Police Department assisted the patrol in processing the detainees. All of those arrested were patted down and then loaded on a bus to be taken to jail. Around 2 a.m., they were transported to an immigration and customs facility.

Any of the suspects found to have a criminal record will go through a process separate from those who have no criminal background. First-time offenders are taken back to their home country fairly quickly, Rusnok said, although there is an appeals process for those ordered deported.

Those deported once and arrested in the United States again are subject to felony charges and up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

The driver, also an illegal immigrant, is under investigation and his case may be presented to the U.S. attorney’s office for prosecution.

Rusnok said the Cowley County case is just one example of a larger problem of smuggling and illegal immigration. In some instances, immigrants pay in excess of $1,800 each for a covert trip into the United States. Many times the long trips include no stops, and the illegal aliens are given little water and made to go to the restroom in a bucket.

“The immigrants are essentially cargo for smugglers,� Rusnok said. “They have no regard for human life.�