Newport News Marine Patrol helps capture illegal immigrants

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A boat used to patrol the shores in Newport News helped capture two illegal immigrants from Mexico.The fully equipped 25-foot twin engine Sea Ark, with all the latest bells and whistles for law enforcement is used to patrol more than 50 miles of shoreline in Newport News, but as a part of Homeland Security, the Marine Patrol assists the Coast Guard when needed.This week, the call for service was to apprehend a couple of illegal immigrants who were working on a commercial fishing boat.

"What we're really trying to do is find the ones right now that are criminals and specifically address them and get them out of the cities of the United States because they're committing the crimes, and there's not enough bed space for immigrations to take all of them," said Officer Tracey Cox of Newport News Marine Patrol.
The main suspect was wanted for failure to appear in court on an immigration charge after an arrest in Texas 4-years ago. But, after searching the boat they found another illegal immigrant hiding.Both are from Mexico, but had identification saying they were from North Carolina.

"The captain himself didn't know that they were illegal,” said Cox. “They actually had papers showing that they were residents. But, the papers there were showing were not true papers.” The commercial fishing boat is based in Newport News. Authorities searched for drugs and it came up clean.

HAMPTON ROADS NEWS