A Florida highway police officer intervenes with a driver in Miami.
Foto:
Joe Raedle / Getty Images
MIAMI – Florida highway police discovered eight undocumented immigrants inside a vanby stopping his driver for having the windows with tinted windows that are not allowed, local media reported this Saturday.
The driver, the Mexican Javier Palma-Jenaro, 40, was arrested and the eight immigrants made available to immigration authorities, according to information from the Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) on the event that occurred in Hernando County (west Florida).
The truck, with plates from the state of Arizonabordering Mexico, had US flag stickers on the windows.
According to police information, inside the back of the van there were fans and boxes of water and soft drinksand the eight immigrants, whose identities and nationalities have not been revealed, they all wore the same fluorescent yellow t-shirts.
When the patrolmen stopped him and asked for his documentation, Palma-Jenaro presented a Mexican passport and an expired driver’s license from the same country.
The Mexican meets being held in the hernando county jail and faces charges of human trafficking, in addition to several violations of traffic regulations.
The event gained more notoriety in light of the recent death of 53 immigrants who were traveling crammed into a truck that looked like a refrigerated vehicle that was found abandoned in San Antonio, Texas.
The Florida Highway Patrol said in a statement that Palma-Jenaro confessed under questioning that traveled from Milwaukee to Phoenix (Arizona) to look for the eight immigrants, whom he had to take to a place in Fort Myers (southwest Florida).
The detainee, who had $3,700 dollars in his possession, told the patrolmen that he charged $250 for each passenger.
Last Wednesday in Sumter, another Floridian county, patrol officers stopped the driver of a vehicle with an expired Texas license plate and a crack in the windshield.
Along with the driver, José Juárez, who is under arrest, was a man who presented a Mexican passport without US entry stamps. and that it was later confirmed that he had been deported once.
On June 30, the Florida Supreme Court granted a petition by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to create a statewide grand jury to deal specifically with human trafficking, including immigrants and foreign children coming into the country. without company.
DeSantis, a conservative who is running for reelection as governor this year and, according to various sources, may compete with Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, is an advocate of zero tolerance for irregular immigration.
The Court ordered the creation “without delay” of this special jury, which will function in principle for twelve months and will be chaired by Judge Ellen S. Masters.
It will be dedicated to investigating crimes, formulating accusations and carrying out all the other functions of those judicial bodies.