Agents find illegal aliens inside hay

U.S. Border Patrol agents on Monday arrested 46 illegal immigrants hiding within secret compartments inside hay bales on two tractor-trailers.

The arrests, which took place within a nine-hour span at a Border Patrol checkpoint along Interstate 8, is the first significant one of the New Year and had all the markings of "a large-scale, organized, commercial human smuggling operation," said Joe Brigman, spokesman for the Border Patrol's Yuma sector.

All of the illegal immigrants admitted they each paid approximately $2,000 to be smuggled to various locations throughout the United States, Brigman said.

The drivers of the trucks, both Mexican men legally residing in the United States, have each been charged with felony smuggling, Brigman said.

The illegal immigrants were hiding inside makeshift plywood compartments within the bales of hay and were discovered when Border Patrol canines detected human scent, he said.

"This is the length that they're going to try to transport these people away from Yuma," Brigman said, adding the case is under investigation.

Brigman said no weapons or drugs were found among the illegal immigrants arrested.

More than 98,000 arrests were made in the Yuma sector in 2004 alone. "There are no indications the number of arrests will decline" this year, Brigman said.

Don't mean to burst your bubble, but Visa International, this week said the amount being sent south of the border is 38 BILLION per year.

Lou Dobbs Show/CNN/Aired 12/28/04
And Visa targets immigrant workers in a new ad campaign. But some say the program pose poses a security risk to this country.

PILGRIM: Visa International is launching an aggressive campaign to convince Latin American migrant workers to use plastic to send money back home. Now, Visa hopes to take over some of the money transfer business from companies like Western Union and Moneygram. Critics say using debit cards to transfer money raises new security concerns. Lisa Sylvester has the story.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT : Visa, it's everywhere you want to be, and in some places, you may not expect it to be. Visa International is targeting migrant and other workers from Latin America as its new favorite customer. The company is marketing its smart card that works as a prepaid debit card. Workers in the United States can easily transfer money to relatives abroad at a low cost. The banking industry hopes to tap into the remittance payment market that has been growing at an astronomical pace.

MANUEL OROZCO, INTER-AMERICAN DIALOGUE: In 2001, it is total volume of remittances to Latin American was $18 billion, and it grew to $38 billion three years later.

SYLVESTER: Wire services, including Western Union and Moneygram so far have dominated the $38 billion money-transfer market. A recent study found that 86 percent of remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean were cash transfers, 4 percent home delivery, 4 percent bank or credit union deposit, and 1 percent debit or smart card. Not everyone agrees that banking institutions make it easier to send money out of the country. Critics say nearly $40 billion a year exiting the United States is not small change, and leaves less money for some of the poorest U.S. communities. And there's also a potential security risk.

MARK KRIKORIAN, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: Immigrant remittances are one of the ways bad guys can transfer money across borders because even though most of that money is completely innocent, people working jobs and sending money home, it can serve as cover for terrorists, other kinds of criminals to move money.

SYLVESTER: But Visa and other credit card companies are charging forward, reaching into one of the few untapped markets.

SYLVESTER: The banking industry is convinced it can capture more of the market because its costs tend to be lower than traditional wire transfers. The bank costs as little as $8 a transfer, using the smart cards, and on the other hand, wire services can cost up to $25 a transfer. Kitty?

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/28/ldt.01.html

A billion here, a billion there, what's a few dollar among ally nations, right?

This is deplorable.

Don't miss this and the full Barron's report is on FR somewhere:

20 MILLION ILLEGAL ALIENS?
By Michelle Malkin · January 03, 2005 11:02 AM

Barron's has an important lead article out today on "the underground economy" (password required). According to Robert Justich, a senior managing director at Bear Stearns Asset Management in New York, current estimates of the illegal alien population (most news articles cite the old 8 to 13 million figure) are too low. He puts the figure at 18 million to 20 million.

The article's author, Jim McTague, notes some devastating consequences of the failure to enforce our immigration laws--and he does so with a bluntness that is unusual for the usually open-borders-friendly business press: -snip-

http://michellemalkin.com/archives/001131.htm

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