Interstate 55 is a pipeline for many things, including smuggled illegal immigrants.

In monitoring jail booking sheets and federal court filings in 2005, I began to realize state troopers conducting traffic stops along the interstate near Springfield were finding a startling number of illegal aliens traveling in appalling conditions. Affidavits accompanying the federal charges told the stories.

Human cargo / Smugglers use I-55 as pipeline to Chicago for illegal immigrants
Nov. 13, 2005

Picture this.

A Chevrolet Suburban hits the highway with 17 people piled inside. Most of the seats have been removed to allow more people to be crammed in.

No one is wearing seat belts, and the passengers – mostly Mexican citizens – are forced to squat below window level so no other motorists can see them.

The driver refuses to stop for bathroom breaks, so passengers must urinate in milk jugs or plastic windshield-fluid containers. If their bodily needs are any worse than that, they’re out of luck.

There might be one stop for food during the 1,800-mile smuggling trip, depending on the driver’s mood. He will remain at the wheel from Phoenix to the passengers’ destinations without napping. If he finally gets sleepy enough, he might ask another passenger to drive for a while. Neither has a valid driver’s license, nor does either have much of a grasp of the English language.

Think it’s a scene from the American Southwest? Think again. Illegal aliens are being smuggled through central Illinois every day, and the overloaded vehicles they’re riding in are a potential threat to motorists’ safety, officials say.

Interstate 55 is a popular route for transporting undocumented Mexican and Central American citizens from “load houses” in Phoenix to Chicago and various other destinations in the eastern United States.

During routine traffic stops in Sangamon, Logan, Macoupin and Montgomery counties between January 2004 and October 2005, Illinois State Police and immigration officials encountered more than 330 illegal aliens, according to numbers from the federal courts and officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“As far as I’m concerned, all the cases are mind-boggling. Human beings being treated as cargo is just beyond me or anybody else,” said Greg Archambeault, resident agent in charge of the Springfield ICE office.

“It’s so degrading to these people. I know they’re paying a smuggler to bring them up to the United States, but I don’t think they know what they’re getting into when they get into the back of a van with 16 other people, and they’re not allowed to stop to use the restroom or get food.”

Human smuggling organizations rake in $10 billion in profits every year, according to ICE estimates.

“The people that are being smuggled really are treated like commodities,” said Gail Montenegro, spokeswoman for the Chicago ICE office. “It’s just a business to the smugglers. They really don’t care about human safety at all.”

Federal court filings show that drivers caught locally smuggling aliens, an aggravated felony, have been sentenced to an average of 13 months in prison followed by two to three years of supervised release. After they serve their time, they typically are deported.

The victims are not charged with a crime. They usually are sent to a local jail until they can be sent back home.

In each of the recent documented smuggling cases, the passengers or their families paid a few hundred dollars to several thousand dollars to be driven to various destinations, mostly Chicago. Some, however, were going as far as North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and New York. The passengers often are expected to pay additional money once they reach their destinations.

The drivers usually are part of larger organizations that smuggle people through Mexico, over the border and into Arizona or California. Nearly every illegal passenger that’s been stopped during the past two years met up with the drivers at various load houses – usually a house, apartment or motel – in Phoenix.

Discovering a vehicle jammed full of hungry, frightened illegal aliens is nothing new for District 9 Illinois State Police. Master Sgt. Marke Bobbitt, a trooper for more than 20 years, has encountered smuggling vehicles on numerous occasions. The illegals usually are “very pleasant and very passive” despite the conditions, he said.

“When you stop them, any way imaginable of seeing people in the vehicle, you’ll see it. They’ll be squatting, lying down, underneath people’s feet. Usually the vehicles are way overloaded. That’s why when they’re in an accident, there are so many injuries, because there are so many people in there,” he said.

“We’ve seen women who’ve defecated in their pants, and it’s stained through because they won’t stop and let them out. You really feel bad for these people, because they want to get to the place where they have an opportunity to get the American dream, but to get there they’re having to endure these types of things … ”

Among the recent traffic stops that thwarted smuggling trips:

* Sept. 22. A trooper stopped a Ford van with Arizona plates near Lincoln for improper lane usage. Inside were 17 illegals.

The driver’s area was separated from the cargo area by a steel mesh divider, and a bench seat had been placed loosely at the rear of the cargo area. On the dashboard was a list with the passengers’ names, the amounts of money they owed, their destinations and points of contact to collect fees owed. The list indicated a woman already had been delivered to St. Louis and that passenger had owed $700.

Documents in the van indicated it had been driven approximately 65,000 miles during the previous 10 weeks. The passengers told authorities they had paid various smugglers in Phoenix, and several were going to pay additional money after arriving in Chicago, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Indiana and Maryland. The driver had a counterfeit Social Security card and a fake Mexican driver’s license. He was to be paid $1,000 upon returning to Phoenix after delivering all the passengers.

* June 22. A trooper came upon a Dodge Caravan with Wisconsin plates that had broken down along southbound Sixth Street near the Interstate 72 on-ramp. Inside were 11 illegals. The driver told authorities he had made arrangements with a smuggler in Arizona to drive the 10 passengers to New York City. The smuggler gave him a fake Mexican driver’s license and $500 for gasoline and food, the man said.

The passengers told authorities they paid smuggling fees ranging from $1,000 to $9,000 to be taken from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and Ecuador through Mexico, across the border and to various U.S. destinations.

* May 19. A trooper stopped a pickup truck for going 70 mph on I-55 near Litchfield. Inside were 16 illegals. They said they had paid smugglers in Phoenix between $1,600 and $2,000 to be taken across the border and driven to Chicago and other locations. They said the driver stopped for food three times and only once for a bathroom break at a rest area. He told them to go to the restroom in pairs so they would not stand out. During the rest of the trip, he instructed them to use a jug, which originally contained window-washing fluid, as a urinal.

* March 15. A trooper stopped a minivan on I-55 near Williamsville for improper lane usage. Inside were 14 illegals. The two drivers told authorities they were going from Atlanta to North Carolina. However, the passengers said they were picked up at a load house in Phoenix. They said they paid varying amounts to smugglers in Phoenix and were going to pay additional money after finding work in Chicago.

* March 18. A trooper stopped a Chevrolet Suburban for improper lane usage and a defective windshield on I-55 at Toronto Road. Inside were 17 illegals seated on the floor and in the rear cargo area, and there were plastic jugs of urine inside. The passengers said the men were not allowed to get out of the van to use the bathroom during the 33-hour trip. The women were allowed to stop only once.

One driver told police he paid smugglers $2,200 to be transported from the border to Chicago via Phoenix, and that the smuggler provided the truck and a cell phone so he could make arrangements to have it picked up after getting to Chicago. The other driver said he crossed the border with four friends and they got lost in the desert for three days, where they met a group of 10. That group’s guide offered to smuggle him to Chicago for $1,000.

The passengers said they crossed the border together and paid various amounts of money to smugglers in Phoenix, and were going to pay more to the drivers when they got to their destinations. They were guided across the border by smugglers and taken to a load house in Phoenix.

Archambeault said there is no end in sight in terms of the number of smuggling loads coming through central Illinois. Illegal aliens are treated as a commodity who will go back to the same smuggling organization and pay more money to be taken across the border again, he said.

Bobbitt agreed.

“I think people would probably be very surprised if they knew the numbers of people we’re stopping. If I wanted to, I could stop illegals every night,” he said.

“In this day and age, you do not know who you’re encountering out there. Is it something where they’re looking for a better life and more opportunities? Or is it someone intending to do harm to the country? It’s an important issue, and it’s something Congress and the president will have to work out as far as what the policy will be.”