Thread: N.C.: Nearly A Dozen Immigrants Captured, Then Released

Nearly A Dozen Immigrants Captured, Then Released In Burke County

POSTED: 4:49 pm EST March 7, 2007
UPDATED: 5:47 pm EST March 7, 2007

MORGANTON, N.C. -- Burke County authorities pulled over a sport utility vehicle packed with immigrants on Wednesday, but they say they were forced to let all of them go.

Investigators said there were 11 immigrants, including a 1-month-old baby, in the SUV traveling along Interstate 40 near Morganton. A deputy pulled the vehicle over because he couldn't read the license tag.

The Hispanics said they were going to New York to look for work. The group had been traveling for 10 days, barely stopping. Deputies found bottles filled with urine in the back of the SUV. The only identification they carried were voter registration cards from Mexico.

Authorities said although they believed the immigrants entered the country legally, they could not get confirmation from immigration officials. They said when they called immigration agents for information, they were told they didn't have the resources and told to just let the immigrants go.

So the immigrants were simply released and allowed to continue on their journey.

Immigration officials now say they are angry about what happened. Eyewitness News will have more information this evening.

Mecklenburg County has a program in place to deport captured illegal immigrants. Sheriff's deputies at the jail are trained to identify illegal immigrants and start the deportation process.

More than 1,000 illegal immigrants have already been deported through the program. Gaston County started the same program last month.

Burke County is not using the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program. Deputies say they have enough problems finding room for inmates. They say the jail is almost always at capacity, forcing inmates to sleep on the floor.

A county panel is trying to find ways to increase capacity. Experts say crowded jails increase the risk for violence, escape attempts and inmate deaths.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11195397/detail.html

The only identification they carried were voter registration cards from Mexico.

Nope. These aren't immigrants. Immigrants have paperwork issued by the United States. More crappy reporting.

Authorities said although they believed the immigrants entered the country legally, they could not get confirmation from immigration officials. They said when they called immigration agents for information, they were told they didn't have the resources and told to just let the immigrants go.

How many times, over the last month, have we heard Secretary Chertoff say that ICE not longer practices catch & release? He's a liar and this proves it! Man, this burns my bunns!!!

I recommend everyone send this article to their elected representative and ask them why catch & release is still alive and well. I'm sending it to Rep. Price (D-NC), Sen. Burr (R-NC), and Sen. Dole (R-NC) tonight!

Boy, is somebody ever lying here and I don't think it's the sheriff's department.


Illegals detained, released

By Todd Huffman
rhuffman@morganton.com
Wednesday, March 7, 2007

Burke County Sheriff's Deputy Chase Foss watches over 11 illegal immigrants found Wednesday morning traveling on Interstate 40 near Jamestown Road.
Todd Huffman (The News Herald)

Morganton - A Burke County deputy stopped a car he says was carrying 11 illegal immigrants on Interstate 40 Wednesday morning.

The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement had no place for the people, so deputies released them, they say.

Deputy Brandon Crotts says he was driving on I-40 near Causby Road when he saw a Chevrolet Suburban with a license tag he couldn’t read.

He says he pulled the vehicle over near the Jamestown Road exit, where he says the driver admitted to being in the country illegally.

Crotts says he saw three Hispanic men in the cargo area of the Suburban and one woman with a 1-month-old infant among the people crowded into the vehicle.

“They were very cooperative,” Crotts says. “I asked the driver if they were illegal, and he said yes.”

He says the driver told him they had pooled their money to buy the vehicle in Arizona two days ago and were traveling to New York to look for work.

“I don’t know how they’re going to get there,” he says. “They didn’t have $100 between them.”

Crotts and another deputy detained the 11 people and called the immigration and customs office in Charlotte, he says.

Initially, he says he was told the agency would accept the 11 people for deportation if Sheriff’s deputies could deliver the group. Crotts says a supervisor called him back and said the agency had nowhere to put 11 people.

Instead, Crotts says he was told to release them.

“It’s frustrating,” he says. “We stop them, that’s all we can do.”

Crotts says seeing illegal immigrants on I-40 is nothing new.

“We see them all the time,” he says “Just not this many at a time.”

Detention Sgt. Sam Crump says the two Burke County jails didn’t have the necessary space to detain the 11 people, either.

Sheriff John T. McDevitt says this isn’t the first time this has happened.
“(Immigration agency) is overworked and underpaid, too,” he says. “I don’t doubt it when they say they couldn’t handle them.”

Crotts gave the people their identification cards and told them they were free to go.

Deputy Chase Foss even took time before they left to properly install a car seat that the infant was riding in.

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