Lancet Jades
02-13-2004, 09:15 PM
House owner unaware of harbored immigrants
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Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 13, 2004 12:00 AM
PHOENIX - Russell Young says he thought he was renting his four-bedroom house on East Shea Boulevard to two landscapers who planned to live in the residence with their wives.
Imagine his surprise when Phoenix police called him in California and told him his 2,400-square-foot house was being used by smugglers to harbor undocumented immigrants.
"I had no idea this was going on," Young said Thursday during a telephone interview from California where he lives.
Law enforcement officials on Wednesday discovered more than 150 undocumented immigrants crammed inside the ranch-style house in filthy conditions without food. It was the most ever found in a single location in the Phoenix area, the nation's main transportation hub for illegal immigration.
Russell Ahr, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on Thursday said a total of 159 undocumented immigrants were apprehended as part of the discovery, three more than originally reported. The group included 26 women, and 26 children, Ahr said.
Ahr said 37 of the undocumented immigrants were from Mexico. The rest were from Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador.
Young said he rented the house for $2,400 a month to two Hispanic men who spoke limited English. He said they called him in December asking about renting the house after seeing his phone number on a for-lease sign in front of the house, which had been vacant for several months.
Young said he met the two men, who were in their 40s or 50s, at the house, and gave them a tour. A third man in his 20s accompanied the two men and acted as an interpreter, Young said. He said the men's landscaping story seemed believable because they were wearing cowboy boots and jeans, and their faces were heavily weathered.
"It looked like they worked in the sun a lot," said Young, who lives in Orange County, and owns a communications company in Scottsdale.
Ahr could not say whether the two men who rented the house were among the group apprehended, or whether they remain at-large.
http://www.azcentral.com/images/clear.gif
Daniel González
The Arizona Republic
Feb. 13, 2004 12:00 AM
PHOENIX - Russell Young says he thought he was renting his four-bedroom house on East Shea Boulevard to two landscapers who planned to live in the residence with their wives.
Imagine his surprise when Phoenix police called him in California and told him his 2,400-square-foot house was being used by smugglers to harbor undocumented immigrants.
"I had no idea this was going on," Young said Thursday during a telephone interview from California where he lives.
Law enforcement officials on Wednesday discovered more than 150 undocumented immigrants crammed inside the ranch-style house in filthy conditions without food. It was the most ever found in a single location in the Phoenix area, the nation's main transportation hub for illegal immigration.
Russell Ahr, a spokesman for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, on Thursday said a total of 159 undocumented immigrants were apprehended as part of the discovery, three more than originally reported. The group included 26 women, and 26 children, Ahr said.
Ahr said 37 of the undocumented immigrants were from Mexico. The rest were from Honduras, Ecuador and El Salvador.
Young said he rented the house for $2,400 a month to two Hispanic men who spoke limited English. He said they called him in December asking about renting the house after seeing his phone number on a for-lease sign in front of the house, which had been vacant for several months.
Young said he met the two men, who were in their 40s or 50s, at the house, and gave them a tour. A third man in his 20s accompanied the two men and acted as an interpreter, Young said. He said the men's landscaping story seemed believable because they were wearing cowboy boots and jeans, and their faces were heavily weathered.
"It looked like they worked in the sun a lot," said Young, who lives in Orange County, and owns a communications company in Scottsdale.
Ahr could not say whether the two men who rented the house were among the group apprehended, or whether they remain at-large.