Driver charged in migrants’ deaths

The driver of a sport utility vehicle that rolled over and killed eight of 14 passengers was charged Tuesday with transporting illegal immigrants resulting in death.

Survivors told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers that Rigoberto Salas-Lopez was fondling a woman while driving, contradicting the driver’s claim that he was trying to avoid an animal when the vehicle went off the road and rolled at least five times early Monday.

Salas-Lopez, 30, was arrested after fleeing into the desert, police said.

Authorities said Salas-Lopez is from Guatemala, as were most of the passengers, and the rest were from Mexico.

Salas-Lopez was being held without bail. A court hearing was scheduled for today.

Salas-Lopez said he received the vehicle from a man in Phoenix who offered him $1,000 to drive the people to St. Louis, according to an affidavit by Timothy Chard, an agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Salas also stated that he knew the individuals in the vehicle were from Mexico and Guatemala and that they were in the United States illegally,” Chard wrote.

Six men and two women were killed. Four men and one woman were injured and taken to hospitals.

“The driver was involved in fondling or groping a female in the vehicle and that was the potential reason for the distracted driving,” Lt. Todd Peterson of the Utah Highway Patrol said.

The highways and back roads of southeastern Utah are popular corridors to move illegal immigrants and drugs, Peterson said.

“We are limited as to what our response can be when we encounter these individuals,” Peterson said. “Our local jails and correctional facilities cannot house the number of people we’re dealing with” and Immigration and Customs Enforcement has limited resources. “It’s a Catch-22 situation.”