None of the six drivers involved in four accidents and two stops last week involving illegal immigrants will be prosecuted for human smuggling, a spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday.
Carl Rusnok said special agents investigated the drivers in each of the six incidents, which occurred March 20 and 21.
“The bottom line is that the case was investigated and it was determined that there wasn’t enough evidence to present to the U.S. attorney for prosecution,” Rusnok said.
The two stops occurred near Glenwood Springs; the four accidents were near Brush.
ICE tries to determine if the drivers are “coyotes,” or people involved in smuggling others across the border for profit. The decision not to present a case to the U.S. attorney could stem from a number of things, Rusnok said.
“It could mean they were very low-level people,” he said. “In some of these cases, literally, the smuggler that brings them across the border may actually ask one of the passengers to act as a driver and will take off money from his smuggling fee.”
Of the six vehicles, agents couldn’t ascertain who was driving one of them.
The driver of a second vehicle was driving his family – his wife and three children. The children are all U.S. citizens, Rusnok said, because they were born here. But the driver and his wife were illegally in the country.
The drivers of the four other vehicles are being held in the Morgan and Garfield county jails pending formal deportation hearings. If deported, they are prohibited from re-entering the United States for 10 years. If they do, it is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, Rusnok said.
One of the passengers, an aggravated felon, will be prosecuted by the U.S. attorney’s office on a count of illegally re-entering the country, Rusnok said.
The other dozens of illegal immigrants who were passengers have been voluntarily returned to Mexico and are eligible to re-enter the U.S. at any time if they do so legally.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-820-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
