Back-Road Chases (Victoria Advocate)

BACK-ROAD CHASES
Beefed-up law enforcement has changed the routes for illegal immigrants

BY SONNY LONG - VICTORIA ADVOCATE
May 05, 2008 - 10:55 p.m.

CUERO – DeWitt County Sheriff’s Department deputies detained 16 suspected illegal immigrants Monday morning, the third incident in the past nine days that has resulted in more than 30 people detained.

“What’s going on is that there is so much enforcement along U.S. Highway 59 and U.S. Highway 77 that it’s natural for them to come up alternate routes and end up on (state) Highway 72 through Karnes County and eventually into DeWitt County,” said Sheriff Jode Zavesky. “It happened last year, too. We ended up with quite a few.”

Zavesky said all three recent incidents initiated with attempted traffic stops by the county’s new chief deputy John Oglesby.

“Our new chief deputy is out and about learning the county roads and has come across these vehicles,” the sheriff said.

Monday’s incident began shortly before 10:45 a.m. on state Highway 72 at Farm-to-Market Road 237.

Oglesby tried to stop a van for a traffic violation and it sped away, eventually running into a ditch. Five people bailed out the front of the van and fled on foot, the sheriff said. Fifteen men and one woman were found in the back of the van and detained until officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement could arrive to take them.

Deputies, officers from the Yorktown Police Department, Department of Public Safety troopers and Precinct 1 constable assisted in a search for those who fled. The search lasted about an hour before being called off.

Zavesky said all 16 detainees were believed to be from Mexico.

That wasn’t the case in two incidents at the end of April.

On April 27, Oglesby again at tempted a traffic stop, this time on U.S. Highway 183 South. Twelve to 15 people bailed out of a pickup, and seven were eventually detained.

On Wednesday, Oglesby was on Farm to Market Road 2980 when a pickup came toward him in the wrong lane. He only saw one person in the truck, which pulled into a residence when the chief deputy turned around and attempted to stop it. As he approached, five people, including a child, bailed out of the truck. Five more people were discovered in the bed of the truck and were detained.

“We called in DPS air support and track dogs from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Stevenson prison near Cuero,” Zavesky said. Two women and a 7-year-old boy were eventually found and detained.

“The two groups in late April were all from El Salvador and Honduras,” the sheriff said.

Zavesky said the county has put in claims on three pickup trucks seized in the first two incidents. A rental van was used in Monday’s incident.