Thread: TX: Several suspected illegal immigrants are arrested

Several suspected illegal immigrants are arrested
May 12, 2007 - Posted at 12:00 a.m.
BY DON MUNSCH - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
The Victoria County Sheriff's Office arrested 10 illegal immigrants on suspicion of fleeing law enforcement on Thursday and Friday. But those numbers don't necessarily trigger any trends, a sheriff's office official said Friday.

The immigrants were in vehicles that were pulled over after traffic stops or attempted traffic stops, said Sgt. Mike Williams of the sheriff's office. Two of the arrests occurred on Thursday and the other was Friday.

The first stop occurred around 9:15 a.m. Thursday, when sheriff's office deputy Craig Kirkpatrick pulled over a driver for a traffic violation on U.S. Highway 77 south of Kemper City Road, about five miles south of Victoria. The driver fled through a field.

Nine officers set up a perimeter, did a search and the fleeing man was found and arrested around 10:30 a.m. in a ditch not far from his vehicle. At some point, the man removed his orange shirt to apparently throw authorities off his trail.

Thursday afternoon, around 1:30 p.m., Kirkpatrick tried to pull over a car near U.S. Highway 59 and Beck Road that had nine passengers. The driver at first refused to stop, but eventually did stop when he and another man and four women fled from the vehicle. The women were eventually found, and they and three men found in the car's trunk were arrested about an hour later. The two men who fled were never found. Twelve officers were involved in the search.

Friday morning, just after 10 a.m., Kirkpatrick - who works in the license and weight division of the sheriff's department - encountered another fleeing immigrant, on U.S. 77 south of the McFadden exit, about 15 miles south of Victoria. One man stayed in the vehicle, Williams said. The fleeing man went into the brush but was eventually apprehended. Both were arrested.

The Department of Homeland Security Border Patrol eventually took the immigrants into custody after they were processed at Victoria County Jail.

Williams said illegal immigrants are not using 18-wheelers for travel anymore because they know that those vehicles are required to stop at weigh stations along highways and occupants will be found.

Illegal immigrants have always used cars, he said, and there's a cyclical nature to the number of arrests being made recently because of illegal immigrants trying to escape authorities.

"These things come in waves," Williams said, explaining that authorities can have several arrests one week and then the numbers will decline the next.

Thus, he didn't think there was necessarily an increase in illegal immigrant activity - it's just that there's more law enforcement presence now on the roadways.

http://www.thevictoriaadvocate.com/147/story/54946.html

Saw the headline and thought they might have been trucking them in to vote in Farmers Branch.

Williams said illegal immigrants are not using 18-wheelers for travel anymore because they know that those vehicles are required to stop at weigh stations along highways and occupants will be found.

What a crock, just who are they trying to convince! certainly hope its not us! a bigger fool you are sir.