11/15/07 100 nabbed in Idaho immigration sting

The US Border Patrol has arrested nearly 100 illegal immigrants, all but three from Mexico. A spokesman for the agency says commercial bus employees told them that legal residents were buying at many as ten bus tickets at a time to be used by illegals. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Aaron Wilson was asked this week at a Spokane labor conference how much time goes to searching for illegal workers in Idaho. He says it depends on leads. WILSON -"We prioritize these leads that come in versus all the other leads and all the other areas of responsibility and we look at what are we doing with our limited resources to best have an impact on preserving the national security and public safety." Wilson says potential criminal prosecutions of employers who hire illegal immigrants is weighed and reviewed by ICE and the US Attorney's office, among others. WILSON "What they look at is there enough evidence that a reasonable person, a juror, is going to buy into the fact that this person knowingly employed aliens." The Border Patrol says for some reason Twin Falls appears to be a hub for human smuggling with those arrested bound for Florida, Denver, Laredo, Texas, Salt Lake City, Chicago and Boise. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott