Jail checks turn up illegal immigrants


Published: Jan. 2, 2008 at 4:18 PM
ST. LOUIS, Jan. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. Customs agents have found 48 illegal immigrants at a Missouri jail since they began making daily visits there in October.

The checks are part of federal immigration efforts to reach out to local law enforcement agencies, U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement agency spokesman Ken Carlson told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Agents reviewed jail files on some 1,300 inmates -- held for charges ranging from drug sales to missing court dates -- at the St. Charles County Jail since Oct. 30, the newspaper said.

Some of the illegal immigrants were handed over to immigration agents; others were sentenced on unrelated charges.

St. Charles County is just north of St. Louis on Missouri's eastern border.

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