LAX Sweep Nets Illegal Immigrants

More than 140 illegal immigrants have been arrested at LAX this week as part of a federal crackdown on smugglers using the airport as a transshipment point for illegal immigrants being funneled to destinations throughout the U.S., officials said Wednesday.

The operation will continue for several days and could result in a permanent presence of agents targeting outbound domestic passengers, said Thomas J. Schiltgen, district director in Los Angeles for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

The sweep is aimed at curbing an increase in smugglers’ use of LAX, officials say. The airport has long been known as a conduit for illegal immigrants smuggled across the U.S.-Mexico border and heading to jobs and family members across the country.

The operation, which began Monday in Terminal 1, netted 147 illegal immigrants in its first two days, officials said. All but two were from Mexico. Most were headed to the East Coast. All are likely to be quickly returned to their homelands. Some had paid as much as $2,000 for the services of the smugglers, known as coyotes.

Schiltgen called the action routine. The agency has periodically run such operations at LAX, although this was the first such INS action at the airport since Sept. 11. The terrorist attacks prompted the federal government to boost security at airports nationwide.

The profitable people-smuggling business generally declined following the attacks, authorities said, but it has appeared to be rising again in recent weeks.

Federal authorities concede that such sweeps generally do not stop ongoing smuggling networks, but rather prompt the rings to seek other routes for their clients.

Responding to questions from the Spanish-language media at a downtown news conference, Schiltgen denied that agents were targeting people from Mexico or Latin America. Agents look for certain clues, such as nervous demeanor or passengers who buy one-way tickets, he said. “We don’t base our arrests on the color of somebody’s skin,” Schiltgen said.

Most of those arrested were seized before they cleared security to board planes, he said, but a few were taken into custody at departure gates. The arrests came off without major incident, Schiltgen said, adding that officials were careful not to cause any disruption at a time when airports are under intensified security.