April 21, 2005
By LYNN BREZOSKY
Associated Press
Houston Chronicle
HARLINGEN - Nearly 150 illegal immigrants from Brazil were caught in the South Texas border region today, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.
A total of 147 were caught in six locations, ranging from the banks of the Rio Grande to a roadway about 30 miles north of McAllen, Border Patrol spokesman Roy Cervantes said.
He said the captures appeared to be random, and he didn't know why so many Brazilians were attempting to cross.
"It just worked out because of the operations that we have," he said, referring to patrols along the river, in the brush, and in helicopters. "It is a higher number than normal."
It's the second recent apprehension of Brazilians in South Texas. Cervantes said Border Patrol agents apprehended a group of 40 illegal immigrants in a remote patch of Starr County on March 14.
Cervantes said the migrants came from cities throughout Brazil. He said six were children but didn't have a breakdown of how many were men and how many were women.
The first group was caught at about 9:30 a.m. after crossing the river illegally near the international ferry crossing at Los Ebanos, Cervantes said.
Over the next three hours, groups were caught near Sullivan City, in the brush near La Joya, during a Department of Public Safety stop about 30 miles northwest of McAllen, south of McAllen and at the McAllen bus station.
The migrants were sent to Border Patrol stations throughout the Rio Grande Valley to be processed for deportation proceedings.
Cervantes said Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another Homeland Security agency, would be contacted to detain the migrants.
Carl Rusnok, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said decisions to detain the migrants pending deportation would be made on a case-by-case basis.
Illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico who are not deemed a threat to national security and public safety may be released with a "notice to appear" in immigration court at a later date. Illegal immigrants from Mexico are brought to the border and deported.
Rusnok said he did not know how many of the migrants returned for their court date.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3146835