Oprima el numero dos para ingles.
Posted on 03/03/2006 11:41:31 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Federal officials on Friday raided a squalid house and found 70 illegal immigrants and four suspected smugglers, authorities said.
Federal agents and a sheriff's SWAT team entered the house about 6 a.m., setting off flash-bang grenades as a diversion because there was concern that some of the immigrants were being held hostage, said Frank Johnston, an assistant special agent in charge with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Nobody was hurt in the raid in the unincorporated Willowbrook area of Los Angeles County
Johnston said 70 people from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Mexico, including 15 to 20 women and children, were packed into the grimy one-story bungalow. Some slept 20 to a room, he said.
"It was squalor, absolute squalor," he said. "Bug infestations, trash on the floor."
A .357-caliber Magnum handgun also was found in the house.
The house had bars on the windows and a surveillance camera to monitor the outside, Johnston said.
Authorities were not immediately able to confirm whether any of the people were being held against their will.
However, Johnston said the immigrants likely were being held there until a family member could pay the smugglers' fee - typically $3,000 to $4,000 per person.
Agents have already found a few such smuggling operations in the region this year, said Darren Dowell, an ICE supervisor.
"It's rampant," he said. "It's a problem all through the Los Angeles basin."
Authorities were tipped two days ago when a woman called from Albuquerque, N.M., to say she had been held at the house and believed a relative was being held hostage there, Johnston said.
Authorities wouldn't say how long the woman was held or if she had escaped.
She was flown in Thursday and identified the house so immigration agents could obtain a search warrant, Johnston said.
After the raid, a line of downcast-looking men were herded into a Department of Homeland Security bus for transportation to a downtown processing facility. Some indicated they had been at the house for several months and others had arrived only a day earlier, authorities said.
Inside the residence, graffiti marred the walls and dirty clothes were thrown on the floors. There were two bathrooms but their bathtubs were filled with cardboard boxes.
Eight rooms, each about 6-by-9 feet, were where the immigrants slept.
The house may have been in operation for several months, Johnston said.
Neighbor Eddie Brim, 47, said he saw nothing out of the ordinary that would lead him to believe the house was being used to keep illegal immigrants.
"They were everyday people," Brim said. "We're all neighbors."
Oprima el numero dos para ingles.
Muchos Gracios. :^{
Inside the residence, graffiti marred the walls and dirty clothes were thrown on the floors. There were two bathrooms but their bathtubs were filled with cardboard boxes.
We have a whole town like that here. Guess I better call DHS.....wait they don't care since the illegals live that way of their own free will.
Ya, next to me is a house with 70 people living in it and I never would suspect anything out of the ordinary.
For your future reference, it should be:
Muchas gracias.
Thanks!
Next cerveza is on me. :)
Yup, try going to Yuma.
Vast increase? Please site your proof. According to this, there has only been catch, PROCESS, and release.
Rep. Bob Ethridge, (D) North Carolina asked David Aguilar, US Border Patrol Chief, about OTMs (Other than Mexicans, who have been typically released into the public) and terrorists threat coming in from the Mexican border.
Aguilar summed up, “Is [the border] a vulnerability?”
“Yes”.
“Do we have information that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have looked at that possibility? “
“Yes”
Rep. Steve Pearce,(R), New Mexico questioned Aguilar. “The secretary (Homeland Security Michael Chertoff) said we are going to stop the catch and release program. [a friend of Pearce] Judge Carter recently went to one of the detention centers where OTM’s were being processed. Carter asked how long they are going to be here. He was told ‘til they are “processed”.
The judge commented to the official that he thought we were through with catch and release and was told, “We are. It’s now catch, process and release.”
Pearce asked Aguilar, “ Are we actually catching and releasing or catching, processing and releasing?”
Aguilar answered, “ We are moving toward catch and remove”.
That’s bureaucratic speak for , nothing has changed, except for more paper work and waste of government employee time. OTMS continue to be released into the general US Population.
Rep. Pearce continued, “We have significant difficulties at the border and the people along the border are just afraid for their lives! The Secretary's comments were that we are going to stop catch and release and to the nation the president said it also.”
“ I’m on your side, I asked the MinuteMen not to operate, but then you leave the citizens of this country on the front line with no protection. That is a very difficult stance for me to support. “
Aguilar confirmed that there had been other incursions by Mexican government personnel and they have been detained on US soil in the past.
Arvin West, Hudspeth, Texas County Sheriff summed up the risks of the Mexican border in his statement.
“Efforts to secure the border against illegal immigrants, drug trafficking, Mexican Military and terrorism has not been effective thus far. The border between Texas and Mexico has been a significant gateway to these kinds of illegal activity to enter the US.
If illicit organizations can bring in tons of narcotics to the region and work a distributing network that spans the entire country aided by the Mexican Military, then they can bring in the resources of terrorism as well. If drug cartels can solicit untrained people to drive across the border undetected, then what can well trained terrorists do?
May God bless you and this great nation we call home.”
CSpan, Feb. 7, 2006 http://www.c-span.org/ Homeland Security Committee of the House of Representatives http://hsc.house.gov/ (Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006) Today, Subcommittee on Investigations Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) held a hearing to examine reported incursions into the United States by individuals appearing to be members of the Mexican military. Mr. McCaul and Members of the Subcommittee investigated ways to establish operational control of our Southwest border and discussed what could be done to prevent such border incursions in the future.
* View video footage of Jan. 23, 2006 border encounter * View Chairman McCaul on CNN's "Lou Dobbs Tonight" (2-7-06) * View Chairman McCaul's Interview on FOX's "O'Reilly Factor" (2-7-06) * View photos of the hearing (2-7-06) * View Chairman McCaul's opening statement (2-7-06)
Unless we Americans want a Kosovo situation in the US, it's best to nip them in the bud early on.
9 to a room?
So you get a 1-by-6 space to sleep in.
Better sleep on your side, I guess.
Better not sleep or you might get your beeber stuned
Can't believe the neighbor claiming he had no idea what was going on. How do you hide 70 people in a tiny place and not get the neighbors wondering?
……….//…………………Neighbor Eddie Brim, 47, said he saw nothing out of the ordinary that would lead him to believe the house was being used to keep illegal immigrants.
Unfrickin believable……………Eddie Brim has got to be either blind or retarded ………….
Try this:
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0206/020306c1.htm
DHS to end 'catch and release' of illegal aliens in October 2005
By Chris Strohm
cstrohm@govexec.com
The Homeland Security Department plans to stop releasing illegal immigrants into the United States by October, a senior official said Friday.
Greg Giddens, program manager for the department's Secure Border Initiative, told Government Executive he has been asked to end the "catch and release" practice by then.
LLS
They probably caught half of them.
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