Thread: Seven arrested in Texas crash that killed 9 illegal aliens

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Updated April 17, 2012, 2:31 p.m. ET

Woman denied bond in immigrant smuggling case

Associated Press

MCALLEN, Texas — A U.S. judge denied bond Tuesday for one of six people facing federal charges for their alleged involvement in an immigrant smuggling operation that left nine Mexican citizens dead.

Gloria Solis was ordered held on charges of harboring illegal immigrants by U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Ormsby, who noted the seriousness of the case and the suspect's tenuous ties to the area. Solis is a U.S. citizen but moved to South Texas recently.

Border Patrol agents pulled over a van April 10 about 10 miles west of McAllen. As it stopped, one person jumped from the vehicle and ran. When agents pursued him, the van sped off. It crashed just a few blocks away scattering a parking lot with bodies, backpacks and water bottles. The 15-year-old driver escaped but was arrested two days later at his home. He faces nine state murder charges.

Sixteen illegal immigrants were stuffed into the van, along with the driver and another alleged smuggler. Interviews led federal agents to a stash house in Mission where they found 25-year-old Solis and two other alleged accomplices.

Four of the six defendants waived their detention hearings Tuesday. One requested a continuance.

Assistant U.S. attorney Linda Requenez said "this wasn't your typical alien harboring case," noting that in addition to the nine killed, one remained in a coma. She said that besides the 16 people who were packed into the minivan for the fated trip from Solis' house, 12 others were still there when agents arrived. Someone with common sense would have questioned loading so many people into a small van, she said.

Carlos A. Garcia, Solis' attorney, pointed out to Ormsby that his client was a U.S. citizen with no prior criminal record. He said the tragic accident was not "reasonably foreseeable" for her.

Later, Garcia said there was almost a presumption that anyone involved in the chain could have foreseen the result.

Solis' mother, Maria Fuentes, arrived from New York Monday and was in court Tuesday morning. She owns the Mission house but said she had no idea what was going on there. She said her daughter had moved there just a couple of months earlier.

Fuentes said as a migrant farmworker she had been dividing her time between South Texas and Kendall, New York, near Rochester for about 18 years.

Woman denied bond in immigrant smuggling case - WSJ.com

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