This one is for you, LOL. I know you will just love it.
Aired February 19, 2004 - 18:00 ET
Dramatic new evidence tonight that Phoenix, Arizona, is the center of a huge smuggling operation for illegal aliens. Authorities there have discovered two more houses sheltering 100 illegal aliens. Officials say smugglers use Phoenix regularly as an major hub from which illegal aliens are transported to parts, all parts, of this country.
Casey Wian reports.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This house is an upscale Phoenix suburb sits next to a golf course. You'd think it's a safe neighborhood. Think again. Police discovered more than 160 illegal aliens here last week living in filth, under armed guard by suspected alien smugglers. The homeowner who rented the property to two couples who said they were landscapers still struggles to understand what happened.
RUSSELL YOUNG, HOMEOWNER: People were locked in rooms. And they didn't have food. They didn't -- so, as far as I'm concerned, nobody is happier than I am that they got busted.
WIAN: It was the biggest bust in a week that saw four aliens smuggling drop houses raided by law enforcement. Phoenix has become a major transit center for illegal aliens on their way to cities throughout the United States.
As immigration officials have cracked down on smugglers, the price for their services has gone up to between $1,500 and $5,000 per alien. With so much money at stake, violence here is on the rise.
(on camera): Last year, Phoenix set a record with 257 murders, a 22 percent increase over the previous year. The police chief estimates that 60 to 80 percent of those were directly related to immigrant smuggling.
(voice-over): Phoenix seems to be returning to the days of the Wild West.
HAROLD HURTT, PHOENIX POLICE CHIEF: And I think the thing that really also bothered me, not only the fact that we're losing a great number of lives in the city of Phoenix, but the jeopardy that the everyday citizen is put in because of these operations and shoot-outs in the middle of intersections and shoot-outs on the freeways.
WIAN: With the help of local law enforcement, federal immigration officials say they have made progress targeting smugglers, with 148 arrests during their Operation Ice Storm crackdown since September.
THOMAS DEROUCHEY, ICE SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Well, I think that we're certainly getting a better handle on the criminal organizations that are utilizing Arizona as an entry point for smuggling aliens into the United States.
WIAN: But with so much money as stake, local police expect alien smuggling violence to get worse before it gets better.
Casey Wian, CNN, Phoenix.
DOBBS: California regulators have rejected a request for the U.S. Border Patrol to seal off the western-most stretch of the U.S.- Mexico border, including an area known as Smugglers Gulch. The California Coastal Commission said damage to the natural habitat would outweigh any security benefits. The Border Patrol says it will fight that decision.