(The following article by Scott Streater was posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on February 21.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Union Pacific Railroad employees in Fort Worth were startled late Friday when they opened a railroad boxcar to find 37 illegal immigrants hiding in covered containers.
The men, believed to be migrant workers from Mexico, were arrested by the Union Pacific Railroad police, said Terry Grisham, executive administrator for the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department.
Grisham said the men were charged Saturday with interfering with railroad property, a Class B misdemeanor. They were being held late Saturday at the Tarrant County Jail until immigration officials decide what to do.
Illegal immigrants are usually detained at the INS facility in Euless, Grisham said, but there was not enough room.
Grisham said the men, who apparently boarded the train in El Paso, were in good shape.
“There was no one in medical duress,” he said.