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JCC police find illegal immigrants
There were three incidents last week. Authorities say the number of cases so close together is rare.
BY DANIELLE ZIELINSKI
247-7870
July 12, 2006
JAMES CITY -- Through the wide-open doors of the Hotel Colonial America, half-lit chandeliers hang next to exposed heating ducts. Mattresses and luggage carts crowd hallways covered in the layer of dust that clings to construction.

Nothing about it says home. But James City County authorities say up to 25 people may have been illegally living in the hotel, which is closed and under renovation.

The incident was one of three last week involving illegal immigrants in the county. On Friday night, police discovered nine Mexican men while attempting to serve an arrest warrant at a residence on Jester's Lane, police spokesman Mike Spearman said. Officers contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained the men at the Virginia Peninsula Regional Jail while awaiting further investigation by immigration authorities.

Saturday morning, two more illegal immigrants were detained after presenting Mexican driver's licenses during a traffic stop near the 1900 block of Pocahontas Trail, according to authorities. Spearman said that while the department has dealt with illegal immigrants before, this number of incidents so close together is rare.

"I'm not aware of this happening before," he said. "To have three of these in one weekend - I'd say it's unusual."

James City police found six suspected illegal immigrants living in the hotel at 6483 Richmond Road on Thursday, Spearman said. James City Fire Marshal John Black said more people had lived there at various times during the past four months.

"Our initial concern was that they were being allowed to live there in return for working on the renovations," Black said. "We were concerned there might be some kind of exploitative relationship there."

When building inspectors visited the site, he said, they found evidence - including children's toys - indicating that people were living on the first and second floors of the hotel.

Spearman said the building's owner, Darshak Patel, provided identification for the six people police found Thursday and told police he had allowed them to stay there because they were working on the hotel. Officers were suspicious and contacted investigators at Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Norfolk, who told them that unless the people had committed crimes, they did not need to be detained. However, the residents were asked to vacate the hotel because it was unsafe.

"The building does not have a certificate of occupancy," said Doug Murrow, director of James City County's code compliance office.

Black said the fire marshal's office had problems with the vacant hotel for nearly three years, trying to get it up to code. He said his office issued five summonses to hotel owner Patel Thursday, for major deficiencies such as no working fire suppression system, electrical hazards, unlawful occupancy, an unsafe structure and padlocked exit doors.

"We could have written up 100 summonses," he said.

Black has also consulted with the county attorney about getting an injunction against occupancy of the hotel until it is brought up to code.

Patel could not be reached Tuesday.

Two employees who were working construction inside the hotel Tuesday said that some people had been living there, but it was "nothing major."