2 Nabbed In Illegal Immigrant Smuggle Scam

U.S. Border Patrol Contractor Workers Allegedly Freed Captured Immigrants For $2,500

(AP)  Two workers for a Border Patrol contractor were arrested for allegedly conspiring to release illegal immigrants for $2,500 apiece instead of returning them to Mexico.

Christopher Saint Lucero and Manley Lamont Smith work for Wackenhut Corp., which holds a contract to escort illegal immigrants to Mexico after they are captured by Border Patrol agents in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

It was unclear how long the alleged scheme lasted and how many illegal immigrants were released on U.S. soil. According to court documents, Saint Lucero told a colleague that he had been involved in about 10 smuggling attempts.

The men were arrested Sunday after Saint Lucero allegedly escorted a group of illegal immigrants from the Border Patrol's Chula Vista station in suburban San Diego to the border in Tijuana, Mexico. According to a statement of probable cause, Mexican authorities refused to admit two who identified themselves as Salvadorans. One was an undercover agent.

Authorities say Saint Lucero then brokered the deal to get the two men to Los Angeles. Smith allegedly met them at the Border Patrol station in a company vehicle and offered to hide them.

Saint Lucero and Smith were expected to make an initial court appearances Wednesday, said Debra Hartman, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego. The charge against them, conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants, is a felony.

Hartman did not have contact information for their attorneys, and neither man had a San Diego telephone listing. Wackenhut has suspended both men.

Marc Shapiro, a Wackenhut senior vice president, said the smuggling arrests are the first since the contract began in 2006.

Wackenhut has escorted illegal immigrants back to Mexico more than 1 million times. "This has to be put in context of those numbers," Shapiro said.

Wackenhut is a subsidiary of British-based security giant G4S PLC. According to its Web site, the Border Patrol contract is for $250 million over five years.

Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., is cooperating with investigators, Shapiro said. Hiring background checks turned up no criminal history for either employee.

A Border Patrol spokesman, Richard Smith, declined to comment.

The arrests are the latest in a string of corruption cases that have unsettled the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection, which oversees border crossings. A border inspector in San Diego was charged last month with allowing motorists to pass through his booth with illegal immigrants and marijuana in their vehicles.

[mdd1956]

I work as a Transport Officer for Wackenhut. I have worked with both the Officers that were arrested. I am still in shock. I am also here to tell ALL of you who read this that NOT all of us are part of this. Only those two are. The rest of us are hard working Officers with plenty of integrity, honesty, and working hard everyday, doing the RIGHT thing. This is a black eye for us. But it is not something we can''t overcome, and will. SEMPER FIDELIS!!

[frankbowers]

The reason this is a first that they admit too is that this is the first two that were caught. I know this had been happening before after all one man admitted it was his 10th time. I think it is time all the employees including the top of the top management is required to take the sodium Penathal (the truth serum) test to check and all future employes have this done at least once a month.
If they can require a truck driver with a CDL to do a drug test ever three months why not them on a monthly base they have a lot more oppurtunity than any one else other than the border patrol people and why not them as well
The best of good bytes Frank Bowers of austin, tx
Frank Bowers

[acolton1]

Here are some stats I found:

First, the numbers: the Hispanic jobless rate %u2014 immigrant and native-born alike %u2014 climbed to 6.5% in the first quarter of ''08 (non-Hispanics are at 4.7%). Compare that to late 2006, when Hispanic unemployment rates got closer than ever before to non-Hispanic rates, at 4.9% to 4.4%. Latinos have lost a lot of ground, particularly the immigrants among them. Their immigrant unemployment rate is 7.5% now; for those who have arrived since 2000, it''s 9.3%.

That must explain why there is so much more copper and metal thefts. These Illegals are out of a job and they are ripping off anything and everything they can and turning it into cash. Other than dealing Meth across the boarder jobs for Illegals are getting more scarse. I wish they would all just go back to Mexico

[deacon20081]

Another typical example of out-sourcing by Bushco to the British.

[downsteamjim]

What kind of drugs were the engineers on when they build that second fence? It must take several miles of fencing to connect two points a mile apart.

[penskeone]

They should sit at the border with guns (and rubber bullets) and use ''''em as target practice.


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Posted by jboxton


And then you sit and cry and call Mexicans Racist!

[jboxton]

They should sit at the border with guns (and rubber bullets) and use ''em as target practice.

[Meg003]

menmotoscutr has a good point about capitalism. Why not put a bounty on each illegal? The bounty hunters get a triple bonus if the alien invader is not caught again within 1 year. This would give incentives to send them deep into Mexico. All the U.S. citizens who have been put out of work would have a chance to earn a living, while getting the criminal invader population reduced.

[tucano2]

Anytime ICE wants to detain more than two criminals at a time ICE needs only visit any Home Depot store''s parking lot and pick up 20 to 50 Illegal Aliens each day from each location. It is cheaper for ICE to put the criminals on a direct flight to southern Mexico, Chiapas perhaps, and eliminate the contract carrier bus to T.J. from which the criminals easily walk back. A little more difficult to walk back from Chiapas, and far more dangerous, too, which is a good thing.

[gopsoccermom]

menmotoscutr, you must be slow to catch on. If they arent illegals, then they get labor rights.