Posted on 05/24/2012 7:18:16 AM PDT by SwinneySwitch
McALLEN — Federal agents arrested four people accused of smuggling 131 illegal immigrants found at a stash house near Alton.
ICE agents detained the 131 illegal immigrants Tuesday after a raid at a house near Rhode Island and St. Jude streets, outside Alton, said Nina Pruneda, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman.
The immigrants found at the house were from Mexico and Central America, and did not require medical attention, Pruneda said.
The four people arrested had been expected to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge in McAllen to face human smuggling charges, but no court filings detailing the alleged crime had appeared in court late Wednesday afternoon.
Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley since October 2011 have seen about double the number of immigrant stash houses compared to the entire year before, according to agency figures.
In one of the more brutal recent cases, two men Wednesday pleaded guilty to harboring 115 immigrants — some without food or water for days — in a cluster of stash houses in Edinburg.
Vicente Ortiz Soto and Marcial Salas Gardunio, both 23-year-old Mexican citizens, pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court to conspiracy to harbor aliens.
Several of the immigrants required medical attention after authorities found dozens of them locked inside a crowded, hot, ramshackle house, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
One immigrant told ICE agents that Salas would tell new arrivals “Welcome to Hell” when they arrived at the residence and threaten to beat or kill them if they did not remain quiet, court papers state. Ortiz admitted to driving immigrants to the stash houses from the border and selling them snacks.
Each man faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at a sentencing hearing set in July.
Hmmmmmmmmmmm this article seems to confirm the FReeper cynicism on the several threads recently about self deportation, and lack of interest by illegals to cross over our borders anymore.
Notice they only arrested 4.
They must have let the other 131 illegals go.
They're not immigrants.
We should call them what they are.
Trespassers.
Intruders.
.
131 illegals. 4 arrests. Shouldn’t EVERYONE be under arrest?
131 illegals. 4 arrests. Shouldn’t EVERYONE be under arrest?
Obviously they were just getting ready to go back south, right?
I saw that somewhere...
http://www.kmj580.com/pages/landing/?blockID=601968&feedID=806 April 24, 2012
Obviously heading back south.
Associated Press has proclaimed it to be so.
“”(AP) WASHINGTON - The number of Mexican immigrants living illegally in the U.S. has dropped significantly for the first time in decades, a dramatic shift as many illegal workers, already in the U.S. and seeing few job opportunities, return to Mexico.””
They’ll keep a few for witnesses and send the rest back to catch again. I mean try to catch.
Shouldn't that have been 135 arrests? So, what, ICE did what ICE usually does, nothing and we have 131 new illegals roaming US streets?
They’ll keep a few for witnesses and send the rest back to catch again. I mean try to catch.
This stuff drives me crazy. As a LEGAL immigrant, my family had to be on a waiting list for years before we would even be considered. After that, we had to have a sponsor, a place to live AND a means of support so as not to be a drag on the country. What these immigrants have done is criminal to America AND to all of the people waiting to get in legally.
That will probably be the net outcome.
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