By JACQUES BILLEAUD
The Associated Press
April 16, 2010
PHOENIX — The illegal immigrants being sneaked into the country were allegedly given phony $30 tickets and receipts for a van ride. And they were warned that if the van got pulled over by police, they should show the receipt.
Federal investigators Thursday raided five shuttle-van services in Tucson and Phoenix and accused them of knowingly helping to smuggle tens of thousands of illegal immigrants into the U.S. over four years. A total of 49 van operators and alleged smugglers from Mexico and the U.S. were arrested.
The raids exposed a piece of what authorities say is a network of seemingly legitimate businesses that sneak people across the Mexican border.
"The goal of the shuttle operators is to make the aliens look like any other person who would get into a shuttle, like they were going from the airport to their hotel or on a journey around the Southwest," said Matthew Allen, chief of investigations for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, the busiest illegal gateway into the United States.
Investigators said the shuttle-van companies served illegal immigrants who had already slipped into the country by walking dozens of miles through the desert past Border Patrol checkpoints. They climbed aboard the vans in Tucson and were driven to Phoenix.
Although there are no immigration checkpoints on the 115-mile stretch of Interstate 10 from Tucson to Phoenix, the road is patrolled by state and local police. But once they reach Phoenix, illegal immigrants are usually home free. From there, they typically make their way to jobs all over the country.
While the immigrants carried $30 tickets, in reality they generally pay smugglers around $2,500 to take them from the border to their destination in the U.S.
When corrupt van operators are pulled over, they typically claim that they are legitimate transportation services and that it isn't their business to ask about the immigration status of their passengers.
"This case has exposed that for the lie that it is," said John Morton, assistant secretary of homeland security.
Investigators said the five shuttle-van services were never really legitimate businesses at all but were created solely to help smuggle immigrants, and if there were ever nonimmigrant passengers aboard the vehicles, it was rare.
During the investigation, authorities said, they had the front and back doors of the businesses under surveillance. But they would not give any further details about how they built their case or why they believe the companies were knowingly transporting illegal immigrants.
Sergio Rodriguez, owner of Sergio's Shuttle, a Phoenix transportation service accused of working with smugglers, said there has been "a big mistake."
"If somebody gets on my bus, I'm not Border Patrol," he said. "I don't know how to check if he's legal or not."
For many years, illegal immigrants have gotten crucial help from some legitimate-looking businesses that supply cars, lodging, plane tickets and other services.
"To get somebody from south of the border to their ultimate destination, it can't be done with a single guide or a single entity," said Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, whose office has prosecuted travel agents and used-car dealers. "It's actually a complex set of interrelationships between subcontractors."
Officials said that they expect smugglers to find other ways to get their customers to Phoenix, and that there are other corrupt van services out there.
But "this is an effort on our part to raise the cost of doing business for them," Allen said. "We want to make it harder for them to run their illegal enterprises."
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hOJtMzev9B8u5b9EqUNwv8LUpTrgD9F4DL300
Showing posts with label Bus Companies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bus Companies. Show all posts
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Bus companies accused of immigrant smuggling
By SUSAN CARROLL
THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 3, 2010
Federal agents have targeted more than a dozen local bus companies they say shuttled scores of illegal immigrants to destinations across the U.S., vowing to continue cracking down on smuggling organizations' transportation networks.
ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton was in Houston on Wednesday to announce results of a three-month operation focused on Houston- area smuggling by transportation companies, saying federal agents charged 22 suspects with conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants.
Federal agents executed nine search warrants Tuesday morning and targeted 14 businesses, including one on the city's southeast side that Morton said used armed guards and pit bulls to hold passengers in a stash house before they were smuggled on to their final destinations.
“Houston, unfortunately, has become a hub for these illegal transportation companies,” the ICE official said.
Morton called the operation “unprecedented,” saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is no longer targeting just one transportation company or arresting just one driver at a time.
Morton called the operation “unprecedented,” saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is no longer targeting just one transportation company or arresting just one driver at a time.
“We are taking on the whole industry,” he said.
He said the businesses investigated in the ICE operation were not legitimate transportation companies, but worked exclusively with smuggling organizations. The companies charged illegal immigrants “exorbitant” fees — up to $650 for a one-way bus ticket, he said, and transported illegal immigrants from Houston throughout the United States, to places such as Miami, Washington D.C., New Jersey and New York.
Morton said the companies avoided major highways that were likely to be patrolled by law enforcement, and traveled primarily at night. The companies paid commissions to smugglers, typically $200 to $300 each, to bring the smuggled immigrants to them, and would buy and trade passengers for fees, authorities said.
“These companies didn't treat their passengers as persons, but rather as commodities to be bought and sold,” Morton said.
Ed Gallagher, the deputy criminal chief for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston, described the crackdown on the transportation companies as a large-scale operation.
He said the 22 criminal defendants were charged with conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
ICE officials also made 81 administrative arrests of suspected illegal immigrants during Tuesday's raids of the transportation businesses, which are located primarily in east and southeast Houston. The suspected illegal immigrants found at the companies were placed in deportation proceedings, federal officials said.
Kevin Lashus, a former assistant chief counsel for ICE who is now in private practice, said the shift toward targeting the smuggling transportation network — rather than a single driver or van load of illegal immigrants — is significant.
The Obama administration has stepped up inspections of companies' employment paperwork since last year, and now appears to be going after those involved in the logistics of smuggling, he said.
He said by targeting first the driver of a transportation company and then the owner for prosecution, investigators can move up the smuggling chain.
“It's a classic shakedown,” Lashus said. “But they're not just going after the employers — they're going after the transportation system, the underground trafficking routes that are used in Southern Texas and in Houston.”
Several of the companies raided on Tuesday appeared to be vacant on Wednesday. The sign outside one of the alleged stash houses on Harrisburg Boulevard advertised that the building is for lease.
Down the street, an alleged stash house near the railroad tracks was locked off behind a black wrought-iron fence.
A sign reading Bienvenidos — “Welcome” in Spanish — adorned an empty office in a converted trailer at a third targeted company.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6849917.html
THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 3, 2010
Federal agents have targeted more than a dozen local bus companies they say shuttled scores of illegal immigrants to destinations across the U.S., vowing to continue cracking down on smuggling organizations' transportation networks.
ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton was in Houston on Wednesday to announce results of a three-month operation focused on Houston- area smuggling by transportation companies, saying federal agents charged 22 suspects with conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants.
Federal agents executed nine search warrants Tuesday morning and targeted 14 businesses, including one on the city's southeast side that Morton said used armed guards and pit bulls to hold passengers in a stash house before they were smuggled on to their final destinations.
“Houston, unfortunately, has become a hub for these illegal transportation companies,” the ICE official said.
Morton called the operation “unprecedented,” saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is no longer targeting just one transportation company or arresting just one driver at a time.
Morton called the operation “unprecedented,” saying that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is no longer targeting just one transportation company or arresting just one driver at a time.
“We are taking on the whole industry,” he said.
He said the businesses investigated in the ICE operation were not legitimate transportation companies, but worked exclusively with smuggling organizations. The companies charged illegal immigrants “exorbitant” fees — up to $650 for a one-way bus ticket, he said, and transported illegal immigrants from Houston throughout the United States, to places such as Miami, Washington D.C., New Jersey and New York.
Morton said the companies avoided major highways that were likely to be patrolled by law enforcement, and traveled primarily at night. The companies paid commissions to smugglers, typically $200 to $300 each, to bring the smuggled immigrants to them, and would buy and trade passengers for fees, authorities said.
“These companies didn't treat their passengers as persons, but rather as commodities to be bought and sold,” Morton said.
Ed Gallagher, the deputy criminal chief for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Houston, described the crackdown on the transportation companies as a large-scale operation.
He said the 22 criminal defendants were charged with conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
ICE officials also made 81 administrative arrests of suspected illegal immigrants during Tuesday's raids of the transportation businesses, which are located primarily in east and southeast Houston. The suspected illegal immigrants found at the companies were placed in deportation proceedings, federal officials said.
Kevin Lashus, a former assistant chief counsel for ICE who is now in private practice, said the shift toward targeting the smuggling transportation network — rather than a single driver or van load of illegal immigrants — is significant.
The Obama administration has stepped up inspections of companies' employment paperwork since last year, and now appears to be going after those involved in the logistics of smuggling, he said.
He said by targeting first the driver of a transportation company and then the owner for prosecution, investigators can move up the smuggling chain.
“It's a classic shakedown,” Lashus said. “But they're not just going after the employers — they're going after the transportation system, the underground trafficking routes that are used in Southern Texas and in Houston.”
Several of the companies raided on Tuesday appeared to be vacant on Wednesday. The sign outside one of the alleged stash houses on Harrisburg Boulevard advertised that the building is for lease.
Down the street, an alleged stash house near the railroad tracks was locked off behind a black wrought-iron fence.
A sign reading Bienvenidos — “Welcome” in Spanish — adorned an empty office in a converted trailer at a third targeted company.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6849917.html
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