100 Hidden Immigrants Reportedly Enter U.S.

Up to 100 illegal immigrants hidden aboard a Haitian freighter may have been smuggled to shore, where they were loaded into waiting vans, according to authorities.

Marshall Metzgar, chief agent of the U.S. Border Patrol in Miami, said Friday that witnesses had seen people near the mouth of the Miami River piling into waiting vans Thursday night.

“One witness stated she saw 40 to 50 men, women and children loaded into just two vans.” Metzgar said.

When Border Patrol agents inspected the 60-foot Victoria Express, they found “a lot of secret compartments large enough to hide a large amount of people, maybe up to 100,” Metzgar said.

“In those secret areas, they found food droppings, clothing, human waste and a lot of suitcases and bags left behind with female clothing,” he said.

Agents seized the ship and jailed the crew at Krome Detention Center, used by federal authorities to jail undocumented immigrants.

The captain, William Joseph, will be charged with smuggling--if authorities can prove he smuggled any Haitians into the country, Metzgar said.

The Coast Guard has intercepted more than 38,000 Haitian refugees at sea since last fall, when Haiti’s army overthrew Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the nation’s first freely elected president.