Posted on 12/01/2018 5:40:06 PM PST by UMCRevMom@aol.com
SAN DIEGO— An attempt to smuggle immigrants into the country illegally ended with three people dead and eight seriously injured in a crash in a remote, rugged area of California near the Mexico border, authorities said.
The incident began Thursday afternoon when U.S. Border Patrol agents discovered tire tracks for several cars that ran from the international border north into th U.S. The agency calls such incidents "drive-throughs" — instances in which cars illegally enter the U.S., often through remote areas.
They found a piece of a vehicle that they recognized as likely being from a pickup truck spotted nearby 10 minutes later. Agents tried to stop the pickup, but it fled, entering and exiting Interstate 8 twice and weaving through traffic at speeds up to 100 mph, according to witnesses.
Agents then deployed a tire deflation device, and the truck lost control within a minute, crashing and rolling over.
California authorities say one woman and two men were killed in the crash on westbound I-8 about 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of San Diego.
California Highway Patrol spokesman Officer Travis Garrow says a male driver and a female passenger were believed to be seated in the cab of the truck, and nine men were in the bed.
Authorities haven't identified anyone involved in the crash but said the driver could face vehicular manslaughter charges.
It's believed the illegal crossing happened near Campo, California. The Border Patrol released photos of steel fencing cut to allow enough space for a vehicle to pass through.
The crash occurred in a sparsely populated area of rugged oak- and chaparral-covered mountains on the main highway between San Diego and Arizona. Migrants typically walk across the border several miles south and hide in the boulders and brush for hours, even days, for smugglers to pick them up on the side of a paved rural road.
It is one of the busiest corridors for illegal crossings on California's border with Mexico. The Border Patrol uses motion and ground sensors as well as cameras, but it is still viewed by smugglers and migrants as a route with better chances of success than San Diego.
It wasn't immediately clear if any of the immigrants in the truck were involved in the migrant caravan from Central America, although the Border Patrol says that the ones who survived are all Mexicans.
Agency spokeswoman Takae Michael said the pickup was traveling with another car before agents spotted it. Agents later found that car abandoned in the driveway of a home, and they arrested 12 people who also were believed to be involved in smuggling.
The Border Patrol has been involved in several fatal pursuit crashes, including one in Texas this June in which five of 12 passengers in a car being chased by agents died. In March 2016, two people were killed while in a car that was fleeing Border Patrol agents on I-8 near Yuma.
Border Patrol policy states agents can only chase vehicles when the benefit outweighs any immediate danger of such pursuits. It also states that agents can use tire-deflating devices if a vehicle they're trying to stop fails to do so, but that agents should consider how safe it is to do so, like whether there are other cars around and what the area’s topography is.
The agency's vehicle pursuit policy was overhauled in the 1990s after a Border Patrol chase in California's Riverside County ended in a deadly crash near a high school. Four students and a father who was driving his son to school were killed.
Josiah Heyman, the director of the Center for Inter-American and Border Studies at the University of Texas at El Paso, said the Border Patrol's use of vehicle pursuits has been problematic.
He says agents aren't usually involved in chasing high-level criminals, but rather immigrants who, if they crossed illegally, would face a misdemeanor count of illegal entry or a felony one if they'd done so before.
Large numbers of immigrants are usually packed in cars when they're being smuggled and can't wear seatbelts, making a crash even more dangerous, Heyman said.
"It amplifies the dangerousness of this," Heyman said. "I think in all cases, vehicular pursuit is still a risky choice because the risk is not just to innocent bystanders, the risk is to the officer and the risk is to the people in the vehicle."
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says its Office of Personal Responsibility is investigating the agent's response.
The driver of the car, a U.S. citizen, is in police custody.
This is how little the governments of Mexico, Central and South America think of their own people. To care nothing at all about providing them even a modicum of opportunity for even a marginally decent life. To use them as a sort of human export capital to take money out of our economy and send it back in remittances that are essentially all that is keeping the economies of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala afloat despite decades of having sent billions in foreign aid to these crap holes. This can’t go on forever. Something has to give.
... Of course ... after the nation is magically transformed into Socialist/ Communism ... The Entire World will finally be allowed to live in the Global Utopia promised by the Genocidal Murderer Elite that have brought us to this wonderful point in history.
.... The Left is orgasmically smiling joyously because their promised kingdom is finally near after all of the hundreds of years of waiting.
“instances in which cars illegally enter the U.S., often through remote areas.”
A wall would prevent this.
I’m sure leftards will blame America.
I kind of expected this - and you'll see more of it.
Media tried the cutesy photo-op with mama and five kids, the razor wire and tear gas - hoping to get a sympathetic reaction from the sheeple. I think they really expected that out hearts would melt and we'd throw open the gates for these "poor unfortunates" (useful idiots), but it fell flat.
The idiots, the pawns in the game, the illegals, are losing patience, as are the Tijuanans having to house and feed them. Many are thinking of turning back to the south.
Dems and the Media need another stunt to gain momentum (and sympathy). The old saying goes, "if it bleeds, it leads", and it looks like it could get bloody.
They won't mind a few women and kids getting dead...
Watch this get inflated into accusations of murder.
How any American could think that nationalism is somehow “evil” I have no idea. Globalism, in my mind, would only empower communism to the extent that only another World War could undo it, and then who knows what we’d have left to work with.
Nationalism is an important part of a country’s identity.
And it’s a good thing.
Unless you get the urge to invade Poland!
Funny thing is, I think the toughest ones to bring into Globalism would be the communist counties as all they have to offer their folks is a warped sense of nationalism based on not love of country, but fear of govt.
Yeah, maybe you’re right, but I still would not want to have them living next door or across the way. I like having those two huge oceans right where they are.
Me too!!
You know the poor Eastern Europeans are very worried right now!!
i don’t care much about W Europe anymore as they are committing suicide anyway.
Sure, I wish we had Tuborg Pilsner (Denmark) here but I think I can live without it.
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