Immigration Work Force Fights Corruption
Saturday, September 23, 2006; 5:49 PM
OTAY MESA, Calif. -- Under the glare of the port lights, federal agents watched as the GMC Yukon approached the immigration booth. Two years of legwork _ interviewing sources, listening to wiretaps and watching just as they were watching now _ had led to this. Aurora Torres, the suspected smuggler, was behind the wheel.
Weeks earlier, agents had heard her on the telephone with her contact.
  A motorist waits to enter the United States as Customs and Border Protection officer Conrado Torres searches a vehicle, at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, Friday, July 28, 2006, in Otay Mesa, Calif. On the California border, at least nine immigration officers have been arrested or sentenced on corruption-related charges in the past 12 months. (AP Photo/Sandy Huffaker) (Sandy Huffaker - AP) The Immigration Debate
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"Are you going to invite me to the movies tonight?" she asked. "It's going to be four tickets."
"Right at 12," a man responded. "If I can't make it, I'll send you a 9-1-1."
He hadn't made it on that particular day, but tonight everything was going as planned.
Just after 4 a.m., the Yukon eased to a stop at inspection Lane 8 at the Otay Mesa Port of Entry, a byway for travelers heading from Mexico into California. An immigration officer approached. After a brief exchange, the Yukon was admitted into the United States.
Nothing unusual _ but for the 11 illegal immigrants sitting inside in plain view.
Torres was arrested. Then agents moved in to take their final suspect into custody.
"Tickets," investigators had concluded, was code for vehicles loaded with undocumented migrants. "Right at 12" was a reference to a work schedule, the midnight to 8 a.m. shift. The clues, they believed, pointed to the secret of Torres' success.
The inspector from Lane 8 was on break when a half-dozen agents approached. "Are you Mike Gilliland?"
He was an ex-Marine with 16 years under his belt at U.S. Customs, but Torres allegedly knew him as something else. Her contact. The one she referred to as "una cosa segura." Translation: A sure thing.
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