Billboards Remind Texas Truckers of Smuggling’s Cost

Both of the signs carry the blunt message behind the initiative: “Smuggle Aliens… Smuggle Drugs… Lose Your Commercial Driver’s License in Texas.”

(Friday, August 15, 2008)
contacts for this news release



Laredo, Texas – Commercial truckers driving into and out of Laredo, Texas now have a couple of reminders that they should not gamble with their livelihoods by hauling illegal aliens or drugs.


Two billboards were erected today along Interstate Highway 35 as part of Laredo Sector Border Patrol’s effort to make truckers aware of the Texas Hold ‘Em initiative. One of the billboards is located at the junction of I-35 and Loop 20. It is visible to northbound traffic. The other billboard, which targets southbound drivers, is located north of Cotulla.

Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Carlos X. Carrillo led the effort to unite several federal and state agencies to establish the program that uses existing state laws to revoke the Commercial Driver’s Licenses of truck drivers who are convicted of federal charges for smuggling people or drugs. Working through the Texas Department of Public Safety Driver License Division, the program will revoke the commercial license of any driver convicted of felony smuggling transportation charges regardless of the state of issuance of the license. The initiative was announced June 19 by Texas Gov. Richard Perry during a press conference that also included the chiefs of the Border Patrol’s five Texas sectors.

During the current fiscal year which began on Oct. 1, 2007, Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents have intercepted 240 commercial tractor trailers attempting to smuggle aliens or drugs. These cases have resulted in the rescue of 1,309 smuggled aliens, the seizure of 56,359 pounds of marijuana and the seizure of 1,483 pounds of cocaine.

To report suspicious activity such as drug and/or alien smuggling, contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free telephone number at 1-800-343-1994.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Contacts For This News Release
Laredo Sector
Public Affairs Office
Phone: (956) 764-3041 Ext: 3243

Truck driver cleared in death of deputy; now faces possible deportation

01:08 AM CDT on Friday, August 8, 2008

By Brad Woodard / 11 News

HOUSTON -- A truck driver who collided with and killed a Harris County deputy was set free on Thursday after all charges against the Mexican national were dropped.

Jose Vieyra had faced criminally negligent homicide charges in the death of Deputy Craig Miller. In February, on a Katy Freeway feeder road, the two collided.

Miller, a 20-year veteran who was married and had two children, was working undercover at the time of the accident. However, an autopsy revealed he was also intoxicated – by more than three times the legal limit.

The toxicology results have been questioned by Miller's family. Moreover, likely led to charges being dismissed against Vieyra.

“The (district attorney) filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Jose Vieyra, which the court has granted,” said Harris County Assistant DA Donna Hawkins. “The DA has legitimate and sufficient reasonable doubt about the evidence in this care that warranted the request.”

The ordeal had been arduous for Vieyra.

“Not only the arrest, but the death of Deputy Miller has affected him deeply, and he just has to pick up the pieces of his life and go on,” said Vieyra's attorney Lee Guerrero.

Vieyra was elated to be free.

“Thank God to those who uphold the law and justice,” he said in Spanish. “I hope God has in his glory, the man who died and helps his family. I'm going to ask God to bless them always.”

Still, Vieyra's day of vindication was also bittersweet. While he entered the country legally, his papers were expired at the time of the fatal accident.

Now, his faces deportation and is scheduled to appear before an immigration judge in November.

Agents seize $2.6 million in marijuana at Laredo

Associated Press - August 5, 2008 7:35 PM ET

LAREDO, Texas (AP) - Customs and Border Protection today announced its officers seized $2.6 million worth of marijuana found in a furniture shipment in Laredo.

CBP officers found more than one ton of marijuana when they pulled over a truck at the World Trade Bridge on Friday afternoon.

Officers used high-tech scanning equipment and drug-sniffing dogs and found 408 bundles containing 2,685 pounds of marijuana hidden within the commercial shipment.

No arrests were made.

The investigation continues.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Arizona Border Patrol Agents Apprehend 27 Undocumented Aliens

(Thursday, July 03, 2008)
contacts for this news release

Laredo, Texas – Border Patrol agents from the Laredo North station detained 27 undocumented aliens after interdicting a smuggling attempt today.

Just after midnight Thursday, agents manning the checkpoint located on Interstate 35 north of Laredo conducted an immigration inspection of the driver of a tractor trailer. A service canine alerted agents to the trailer and indicated to the presence of people or contraband.

The vehicle was referred for secondary inspection and examined by the Vehicle and Cargo Inspection System which uses gamma rays to produce an image similar to an x-ray. The machine image showed what appeared to be humans among boxes of cargo that was listed as electronic equipment on the bill of lading. Agents opened the sealed trailer and discovered 27 people standing shoulder-to-shoulder in a narrow aisle between the boxes of cargo.Agents determined that all of the people were undocumented aliens. Two of the people requested medical attention and were treated for dehydration by medically trained Border Patrol agents.

One of the aliens had an outstanding arrest warrant on DUI charges and was turned over to the Webb County Sheriffs Office. The remaining members of the group were prosecuted for entry without inspection under the Streamline Laredo initiative or processed for removal from the U.S.

The driver was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

To report suspicious activity such as drug and/or alien smuggling, contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free telephone number at 1-800-343-1994.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is the unified border agency within the Department of Homeland Security charged with the management, control and protection of our nation's borders at and between the official ports of entry. CBP is charged with keeping terrorists and terrorist weapons out of the country while enforcing hundreds of U.S. laws.

Contacts For This News Release

no address available at this time

Laredo Sector
Public Affairs Office
Phone: (956) 764-3243 or
(956) 764-3041

Surface of immigration tragedy only scratched thus far

June 28, 2008 - 4:12 p.m.
Many public servants quietly do their job well.

Victoria Fire Department Capt. Donna Odem-Dollins is just one example. Her touching story is featured in today’s Advocate.

While there’s nothing quiet about the single mother’s brash personality, her story was silent for too long.

Odem-Dollins was one of the first at the scene of this country’s worst human smuggling tragedy ever.

At 2:33 a.m. May 14, 2003, Odem-Dollins hurried along Fleming Prairie Road to a tractor-trailer stuffed with dead immigrants.

In her 20-plus years as a first responder, she’d never seen so much death and pain in one place at one time.

She saw a dead 5-year-old boy, his dead father and teenagers barely older than her own – 19 in all who were dead or dying.

Dozens of other responders also witnessed the horrors that fateful morning.

Victoria Fire Chief Vance Riley arrived at the scene not long after Odem-Dollins did. He’s lucky to have blocked his worst memories, he said.

But memories of the looks on the faces of responders – the shock, the muted fear, the sadness – force Riley to tears still five years later.

Reading and learning about the tragedy will never replicate the hurt these responders carry with them.

Of course, responding to tragedies is their job. They do it on a smaller scale each day.

Every responder agrees, though, this fateful morning was different.

At least 73 illegal immigrants left Harlingen at 10 p.m. May 13, 2003. They climbed into a sealed tractor-trailer with the dream of a better life.

Four hours later, many of the 19 who would die were dead. They succumbed to the suffocating heat, the lack of oxygen and the damage it wrought on their panicky bodies.

You’ve read those two paragraphs in one form or another dozens of times, no doubt.

But what is lost in the familiarity of an over-used passage are the stories buried between those oft-read lines.

Odem-Dollins didn’t just care for the immigrants she found with pulses. She didn’t just relive the story so that it could be told here five years later.

Her life embodies the spirit of a first responder. She’s on the front lines of caring and giving, even when she’s off the clock.

Her professional and personal story, which begins on Page A1, bears remarkable parallels.

Riley, meanwhile, felt a month’s worth of tragedies rolled into one horrific morning.

Reflection on the tragedy offered him a heightened respect for his country.

Men die every day defending the United States, he said, but others die every day just to come here.

If their stories weren’t worth telling, these responders wouldn’t tell them.

If their stories weren’t worth learning from, we wouldn’t seek their meaning.

There is a fine line between exploiting those oft-read lines and exploring them.

Odem-Dollins and Riley show we’ve only scratched a much deeper surface.

Border Patrol, State of Texas Partnering to Stop Human Trafficking and Contraband

Border Patrol, State of Texas Partnering to Stop Human Trafficking and Contraband

June 30, 2008

The Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) have partnered together to begin cracking down on commercial truckers who knowingly smuggle illegal weapons, drugs or humans across the Texas-Mexico border.

Governor Rick Perry directed the DPS to work with Border Patrol, in an initiative dubbed “Texas Hold ‘Em,” to revoke the commercial driver licenses of those convicted of felony smuggling.

“The vast majority of Texas truckers are law-abiding citizens who work incredibly long hours to feed their families and keep our economy moving,” Perry said. “But there are those who are breaking the law to make a quick buck. And to those law breakers, we are sending the message: If you knowingly smuggle goods across the Texas border, you will lose your license and your livelihood.”

Chief of the Border Patrol, David V. Aguilar, praises the new initiative as an effective deterrent to active smuggling and to identify illegal activity.

“This program is a collaborative effort,” said Chief Aguilar. “It is a crucial enforcement component to help bring security to the Texas border.”

Texas border security operations have put mounting pressure on Mexican crime cartels and other crime organizations to find alternate ways of smuggling contraband into the state. This includes recruiting commercial drivers to transport contraband, including drugs and humans, across the border in return for bribes.

Due to these increased illegal recruitment efforts, the Border Patrol recognized the need to establish a process ensuring DPS receives the necessary court documents to suspend violators’ driver licenses upon a felony smuggling conviction. As part of Governor Perry’s ongoing efforts to secure our border through coordinated state-federal efforts, he has instructed DPS to work with Border Patrol to enforce this law.

In the first eight months of fiscal year 2008, Border Patrol agents in Texas intercepted 423 tractor trailers resulting in the detainment of more than 1,800 undocumented immigrants and more than 112,000 pounds of illegal drugs. In the Laredo area, 330 truck drivers have been caught smuggling drugs or humans into Texas in the last 18 months.

“DPS, in cooperation with the U.S. Border Patrol, is pleased to have established this process for reporting felony convictions for commercial drivers who have committed felonies by transporting drugs and/or undocumented aliens in a commercial vehicle,” said Chief of DPS Driver License Division Judy Brown. “Taking action to revoke the privilege of these drivers will further assist our efforts to increase safety on the public roadways and to increase the security of our nation’s border.”