8 Illegal Immigrants Arrested in Sweep
A police sweep early Thursday found undocumented immigrants living in squalor amid dangerous plumbing and wiring, a police spokesman said.
Simi Valley police and U.S. immigration officers took nine people into custody--eight of them foreign nationals without U.S. residency papers who face immigration charges, said Lt. Tony Harper.
Simi Valley building code officers also issued citations on several of the houses for 40 violations ranging from hazardous plumbing and wiring to keeping chickens illegally, Harper said.
“If you get multiple families living at a single-family dwelling, you get multiple hookups,” he said.
“In fact, at this one location, they had three ice cream trucks that were plugged into a single power source to keep the ice cream cool.”
Taken into custody were Gabriel Lanuza, 29, Raul Lanuza, 23, Jose Lanuza, 21, Celia Rivera, 22, Jose Velazquez, 39, Rosalina Villagomez, 38, a 4-year-old child and a baby. All probably will be deported.
Police also arrested legal U.S. resident Jacqueline Duarte, 20, on a warrant that had been outstanding since before she turned 18, Harper said.
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