Feds conduct immigrant raids around Houston (Houston Chronicle)

Feds conduct immigrant raids around Houston
By SUSAN CARROLL
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Feb. 2, 2010, 2:24PM

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this morning raided a southeast Houston transportation business that allegedly was a front for a stash house for illegal immigrants, authorities said.

The 9 a.m. raid at People Express in the 7200 block of Long Drive was one of several ICE operations conducted around Houston today, agency spokesman Gregory Palmore said.

ICE officials provided few details today, saying they were waiting to release information until ICE Assistant Secretary John Morton announces results of the raids at a press conference Wednesday. Palmore declined to disclose the number of people detained in the operations, the number of locations targeted or how the raids were connected.

Agents accompanied by a helicopter and an armored Department of Homeland Security vehicle swarmed the Long Drive site around 9 a.m., pulling out an undisclosed number of suspected illegal immigrants from a stash house behind the storefront, authorities said. ICE agents also detained suspects who worked at the company, but declined to provide information on them.

Agents used a battering ram and knocked the security-gated front door to one side of the building off its hinges. Once ICE had cleared the buildings and loaded the suspected illegal immigrants into vans, animal control officers brought out pit bulls that were held behind the front office.

Alfredo Estrada, 61, who works about a block away at a furniture company, walked over to watch the raid unfold after spotting a government helicopter flying overhead and seeing marked government cars. He said the targeted business had only been in operation for a matter of months, but was not surprised to hear that it allegedly was a front for smuggling.

“There's a lot of that around here,” he said.

At a second location nearby in the 7700 block of Park Place, agents conducted a similar raid on a business called Ramirez Transportation. One man was held outside the building this morning. ICE officials would not say if other people were detained there.