Thread: TX-Illegal immigrant found stranded under border bridge

Illegal immigrant found stranded under border bridge

Associated Press - April 21, 2008 7:05 PM ET

EL PASO, Texas (AP) - A 33-year-old would-be illegal immigrant from Chile was halfway to freedom. That's when his apparent plan to sneak into the United States from Mexico derailed.

Authorities say Rafael Ernesto Corvalan Herrera was arrested yesterday afternoon after he got stuck in the rafters underneath an international bridge over the Rio Grande. He told U.S. Border Patrol agents that a wheel on a makeshift cart he was using to shuttle himself along the bridge's support beams broke. He was left stranded in the middle of the span, at least 20 feet off the ground.

Agents have been paying particular attention to the rafters of international bridges in El Paso since last year. That's when a similarly crude system for smuggling drugs from Ciudad Juarez into El Paso was discovered.

Pole-mounted cameras trained on the border don't record images from underneath the bridges.

Corvalan is a registered sex offender in Florida. He told agents that smugglers in Mexico had arranged to get a group of people across the river using the cart.

It's unclear how many people may have used the cart and rail system before Corvalan was found.

Corvalan is being held without bond at the El Paso County jail and faces a federal felony charge of illegally entering the country after being deported.

Jail records do not show if Corvalan has a lawyer.

http://www.kcbd.com/Global/story.asp?S= ... v=menu69_3

If I were directing Homeland Security I would budget enough money to construct some portable lookout towers that could be moved to the current hotspots for border crossings. Something like an aluminum pole with an observatory on the top about 200 feet off the ground or situated at a higher point of land, but within a few yards of the border. A foundation with a hole to receive the pole could be dug one week and the pole erected the next week and observations could be made at least ten miles each way in flat country. This would cost about $200,000 per station plus manpower costs.

Being able to spot likely border crossers before they get to the US would allow ground based crews to get there in time to apprehend them. This, along with existing measures would curtail the bulk of border crossers. Of course our government will apropriate billions for high tech solutions that don't have the bugs worked out, arouse politicallly motivated criticism, provoke land use lawsuits, environmental controversy, etc.

How long can this country spend more than it makes?

Secret trolley used to shuttle undocumented immigrants into U.S. under Bridge of the Americas
By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 04/21/2008 05:28:46 PM MDT

A 5-by-5-foot trolley resembling those used by mechanics to slide under cars was put to a very different use over the weekend.
Border Patrol agents spotted it resting between two support beams in the underbelly of the Bridge of the Americas during a routine check Sunday afternoon.

It was being used like a rail cart to carry undocumented immigrants from the Mexican side of the bridge to the American end, about 30 feet up in the air.

"It is very ingenious of them," supervisory Border Patrol agent Victor Lujan said of the smugglers. "Since we're stopping them in other areas, they are trying something new. But we foiled their attempt. With extra manpower, we can send agents over there (the bridge) and look around."

The agents Sunday, also found a man, lying on top of one of the beams over the eastbound lanes of the Border Highway, near the cart. They brought him down with the help of the El Paso Fire Department.

"They used the aerial ladder to bring him down," Lt. Mario Hernandez of the fire department said.

Rafael Ernesto Corvalan Herrera, a citizen of Chile, told the agents he had been on top of the beam 18 hours, since the cart's wheels broke, stranding him.

Fingerprint checks found he was a sex offender registered in Dade County, Fla., and that he had been deported from the United States. He is detained in the El Paso County Jail and will be prosecuted, officials said.

It wasn't the first time that the Border Patrol encountered such a makeshift trolley, but such finds are rare, agency officials said.
The one found Sunday was made of a metallic frame topped by wire mesh; underneath were rubber wheels, such as those on toy pull wagon, mounted on axles. The contraption fit perfectly between two I-beams running 4 feet apart the length of the bridge, as if on a rail.

Agent Lujan said a migrant would lay on the trolley on his back, using his legs to push on the top ledge of the beam, causing the cart to roll along.

That's when problems started for Corvalan, who later told officials an old leg injury had rendered him incapacitated.

Corvalan, who said he paid smugglers just under $400 for the cart ride, allegedly was part of a group of five migrants who started making it across the underside of the bridge Saturday evening when one of the carts' wheels broke.

Lujan said that, according to Corvalan, the smugglers brought four of the migrants back to the Mexican side on another cart and told Corvalan, unable to move, that they would come back and fix the cart's wheels for him.

He was still waiting when the agents found him.

Louie Gilot may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com, 546-6131

http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_9005288?s ... ost_viewed

Cart below bridge moved migrants

By Louie Gilot / For the Sun-News
Article Launched: 04/22/2008 06:13:07 AM MDT


Click photo to enlargeEl Paso firefighter Paul Wasiewski assisted U.S. Border Patrol agents in removing a cart that...«1»

EL PASO — A 5-by-5-foot trolley resembling those used by mechanics to slide under cars was put to a very different use over the weekend.

Border Patrol agents spotted it resting between two support beams in the underbelly of the Bridge of the Americas during a routine check Sunday afternoon.

It was being used like a rail cart to carry undocumented immigrants from the Mexican side of the bridge to the U.S. side, about 30 feet up in the air.

"It is very ingenious of them," supervisory Border Patrol Agent Victor Lujan said of the smugglers. "Since we're stopping them in other areas, they are trying something new. But we foiled their attempt. With extra manpower, we can send agents over there (the bridge) and look around."

The agents Sunday also found a man, lying on top of one of the beams over the eastbound lanes of the Border Highway, near the cart. They brought him down with the help of the El Paso Fire Department.

"They used the aerial ladder to bring him down," Lt. Mario Hernandez of the Fire Department said.

Rafael Ernesto Corvalan Herrera, a citizen of Chile, told the agents he had been on top of the beam 18 hours, since the cart's wheels broke, stranding him.

Fingerprint checks found he was a sex offender registered in Dade County, Fla., and that he had been deported from the United States. He is in the El Paso County Jail and will be prosecuted, officials said.
It wasn't the first time that the Border Patrol encountered such a makeshift trolley, but such finds are rare, agency officials said.

The one found Sunday was made of a metallic frame topped by wire mesh; underneath were rubber wheels, such as those on a toy wagon, mounted on axles. The contraption fit perfectly between two I-beams running 4 feet apart the length of the bridge, as if on a rail.

Agent Lujan said a migrant would lay on the trolley on his back, using his legs to push on the top ledge of the beam, causing the cart to roll along.

That's when problems started for Corvalan, who later told officials an old leg injury had rendered him incapacitated.

Corvalan, who said he paid smugglers just less than $400 for the cart ride, allegedly was part of a group of five migrants who started making it across the underside of the bridge Saturday evening when one of the cart's wheels broke.

Lujan said that, according to Corvalan, the smugglers brought four of the migrants back to the Mexican side on another cart and told Corvalan, unable to move, that they would come back and fix the cart's wheels for him.

He was still waiting when the agents found him.

Louie Gilot reports for the El Paso Times, a member of the Texas-New Mexico Newspapers Partnership, and may be reached at lgilot@elpasotimes.com; 546-6131.

http://www.lcsun-news.com/news/ci_9012337