173 Aliens Captured in Truck That Ran Through Checkpoint

U.S. immigration authorities found 173 illegal aliens hiding inside a tractor-trailer rig that was pulled over early Thursday along Interstate 5 near San Clemente after running a checkpoint en route to Los Angeles.

Though U.S. Border Patrol officers frequently seize trucks, cars and other vehicles filled with undocumented immigrants, officials said the largest single group arrested was 153.

Also on Thursday, the Border Patrol stopped a truck along Interstate 15 in Riverside County and discovered 73 illegal aliens inside.

The two incidents come at a time when authorities say they have noticed a surge in the number of arrests of illegal aliens along the U.S.-Mexican border in San Diego County, which is considered the most popular crossing point for illegal aliens. The area provides the quickest access to jobs in the Los Angeles area.

Though arrests of illegal aliens along the border have declined, sometimes dramatically, since enactment of the new immigration law Nov. 6, officials in San Diego have reported an increase in June arrests.

From June 1 through June 9, Border Patrol officials say, authorities arrested an average of 1,371 aliens a day, a 46% increase over May. With seasonal work plentiful in the United States, both months are busy ones along the border.

Arrests Still Below Record

“It’s starting to get busy again,” said Harold Ezell, western regional commissioner for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, parent body of the Border Patrol.

However, arrests thus far in June are still 38% below the record pace of June, 1986. In May, apprehensions of illegal aliens were down 61% compared to the same period during 1986.

Officials have largely attributed the national decline in arrests to passage of the new immigration statute, which has apparently deterred some foreigners from attempting to enter the country illegally.

Among other things, the law makes it illegal for U.S. employers to knowingly hire illegal aliens.

Ezell spoke to newsmen in San Diego as he stood in front of the stolen 18-wheel tractor-trailer--registered in Oregon--that authorities say was used to transport the 173 illegal aliens. Police are investigating the theft.

After Ezell spoke, most of the apprehended aliens--the great majority of whom were young Mexican men--were led out out of the Border Patrol holding facility and put on buses to be returned to Mexico. Authorities said the aliens had paid $200 to $300 each to be transported past the Border Patrol’s checkpoints to the relative safety of Los Angeles.

One man, asked whether he was aware of the new law, said yes. “We came anyway because we’re poor, and there’s no work in Mexico,” the unidentified man said quickly, before being whisked away.

Driver Tried to Flee

The trailer was seized at 5:20 a.m. Thursday in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 about one mile north of the San Clemente Border Patrol checkpoint. After the vehicle failed to stop, agents followed it until it halted and the driver, later identified as Eduardo Cardenas Ventura, fled into the brush, where he was arrested, the patrol said.

Cardenas, 22, a suspected illegal alien from Acapulco, will be charged with alien-smuggling, the patrol said.

Jammed inside the trailer, authorities found the 173 illegal aliens. The vast majority were from Mexico, but the group also included two El Salvadorans, four Guatemalans and one Cuban, authorities said.

As is standard, the non-Mexicans were to be held pending possible deportation proceedings.