LINK to Story


Mexican mother, child found in gas tank

12:10 AM CST on Sunday, April 3, 2005
Associated Press


PHOENIX – Marisela Chavez-Ramirez's journey from Mexico to be reunited with her husband ended when U.S. border officials found the woman and her 3-year-old daughter curled up in the gas tank of a Dodge Caravan.

A smuggler had squeezed the pair from the Mexican state of Guanajuato into the tank, accessible through the floor of the van, to try to sneak them through the San Ysidro Port of Entry south of San Diego. They were discovered after an inspection revealed that a second tank had been added to carry fuel.

"To see a child, with a baby bottle in its mouth, that was shocking," said Adele Fasano, director of field operations for the San Diego district of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Smugglers and individual migrants have a long history of adapting their tactics to try to circumvent whatever barriers immigration officials put in their way. But they've shown more creativity in recent years as the government has launched repeated crackdowns along the frontier.

Ms. Fasano said there has been a spike in California in cases where smugglers place women and children in small compartments in vehicles to drive them across the border. Migrants have also been found inside piñatas and washing machines.

Arizona-based agents have found smugglers who disguised their vehicles to look like TV news trucks or U.S. Border Patrol vehicles. A fake FedEx truck has also been used to haul migrants.

In Texas, authorities once found a man rolling down a street disguised as a tumbleweed. People have attached cow hoofs to their feet to disguise their footprints.

"The only problem with that is there aren't too many two-legged cows," said Doug Mosier, spokesman for the Border Patrol in El Paso.

The number of illegal migrants crossing into the United State brought out about 150 people Saturday in Douglas, Ariz., in a protest. Many of the marchers were part of the Minuteman Project, which has brought volunteers from around the country to patrol the Arizona-Mexico border throughout April.

Border patrol officials have said they fear the volunteers will provoke violence. One of the volunteers was openly carrying a revolver in a holster on his hip during the Saturday march.




Edit: Link by Mr_Magoo