Border Patrol detains 17 after downtown chase
By ANDRES R. MARTINEZ, The Monitor
June 20, 2007 - 1:37PM
MISSION – Border Patrol agents arrested 17 illegal immigrants after a morning pursuit that cut through the city’s downtown area and ended yards away from an elementary school.

School officials locked down Pearson Elementary, one of three summer school sites for elementary students in the district, at about 8:40 a.m., said Craig Verley, Mission school district spokesman.

Agents at the scene said that they noticed the immigrants in a Plymouth Voyager with Illinois license plates near Mission’s La Cuchilla neighborhood.

But when they attempted to pull the vehicle over, it fled from the scene, taking a path that led through downtown and ended on Slabaugh Avenue between 3rd and 4th streets.

Agents hit a gas power line at some point during the pursuit, according to Mission police.

The immigrants eventually bailed from the van and scattered, running into nearby yards and even climbing into trees.

With Customs and Border Protection helicopters circling overhead, agents worked to control the chaotic scene. Men speckled with mud hid in nearby foliage.

One agent interrupted an interview with reporters, when they spotted one of the immigrants walking behind him.

It remains unclear whether any of the men that escaped from the van managed to elude authorities.

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