BRUNSWICK — When Brunswick police pulled over a 1993 Ford F-150 on Interstate 71 for having expired license plate tags on the July 4 holiday, officers found the driver and three passengers of the pickup were Mexican nationals currently residing in Ohio for work.
The driver of the truck, a 30-year-old male, presented the officers with a valid Mexican driver’s license. The three passengers, who did not have official identification on them, attempted to tell the officers in English their names, home in Mexico and current residence in America.
They all claimed to be staying in Sheffield Lake.
A friend and American host to the four Mexican males soon came to the scene in order to translate for his friends. The Columbus resident said his friends were here to work for him at his construction company, Cervantes Construction.
One of the passengers, a 22-year-old male, told the officers he was not in the country legally.
Officers took the four Mexican men to the police station and contacted Immigrations Customs Enforcement (ICE) by teletype.
The ICE shortly responded that Brunswick police did not have the authority to detain any of the subjects. The four men were released.
“We did give (ICE) the information of where they were staying in America,†Brunswick Sgt. Joseph McDermott said. He said it might be a matter of the ICE filling out paperwork and going through proper procedure before going through deportation proceedings.
Thanks to the Brunswick Police Department for following up with ICE.
I believe the Brunswick Police had the legal authority to detain these individuals until they could be properly identified and/or picked up by ICE.
ICE’s seeming indifference to the situation is certainly a reflection of Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) lax attitude towards the millions of foreign criminals that travel and live in our cities–stealing our identities, poisoning our children with drugs, and demanding Amnesty for their crimes.
Is it any wonder with this type of security a handful of Muslims were able to bring the US to a halt on 9-11?
The warning bells are deafening to those of us who are familiar with our largely unprotected border yet President Bush and Congress keep their heads in the sand and ignore the obvious–as foreign agents with no valid ID’s or legal rights to be in our country continue to roam at will with the apparent OK from DHS.