143 Illegal Alien Suspects Seized in Sweep

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 143 suspected illegal aliens in Santa Ana Thursday during an early morning sweep in which several Orange County Transit District buses were stopped in attempts to apprehend fleeing suspects, immigration authorities said.

Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman John Belluardo said targets of the sweep were illegal immigrants who routinely loiter on street corners, waiting to get hired for day labor.

The raid was the fourth in Orange County in the past eight days. Since late August, immigration agents have arrested nearly 800 illegal aliens during seven similar operations in the county, Border Patrol spokesman Emanuel M. Steenbakker said.

Among those arrested Thursday was a pregnant woman who turned out to be a legal resident. Border Patrol spokesman Joe S. Romel said the woman was released and transported back to Santa Ana as soon as it was verified that she was in the country legally. He said the woman was not carrying her immigration papers “because she was afraid she would lose them.”

Transit district officials said they do not have a specific policy in connection with buses being stopped during immigration raids, but the district issued a written statement saying:

“We regret the inconvenience to all our passengers for the delays they may have suffered in getting to their jobs or other appointments, and we sympathize with the members of the Hispanic community who were interrogated.”

In Thursday’s raid, 10 Border Patrol agents swept a two-to-three-mile stretch of Euclid Avenue, Romel said. About 15 people were arrested after they ran to get on transit district buses, he said.

“We weren’t stopping buses randomly,” he explained.

A district spokeswoman said, however, that reports from drivers indicated that only two passengers were questioned and removed from buses. She said the discrepancy in numbers may have resulted from some drivers not reporting to superiors that they had been stopped.

Romel said orders for the raid came from INS Western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell.

Steenbakker said immigration authorities are stepping up their efforts in the county because of complaints from the public.

“We’ll be up there two or three times a week, at least until the level of complaints drops down,” he said.