21 Hurt When Illegal Immigrant Smuggling Van Overturns

More than 20 people were injured, eight critically, when a van being chased by U.S. Border Patrol agents crashed on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico, authorities said. The blue Chevrolet Sportvan packed with suspected illegal immigrants overturned on State Route 905 around 1:40 p.m. while trying to avoid a spike strip that Border Patrol agents placed in its path, authorities said. Twenty-eight were in the van when it crashed. The van was part of an organized smuggling effort that involved two other vans transporting illegal immigrants, said Richard Kite, a Border Patrol spokesman. Together, the three vans were attempting to transport about 90 people. "You have three vans in one location with a significant number of illegal aliens. This was obviously a coordinated smuggling effort," Kite said.Emergency personnel tend to the injured along Interstate 905 near San Diego after a van carrying at least 21 suspected illegal immigrants crashed while trying to evade U.S. Border Patrol agents.Eight people suffered life-threatening injuries, while 13 were treated for minor injuries, said Maurice Luque, a San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman. Two helicopters and nine ambulances converged on the site to take the injured to at least four hospitals. Seven people were not injured. The chase began around 1:30 p.m. when Border Patrol agents received reports that large numbers of illegal immigrants were being loaded into three vans in the Otay Mesa industrial district of San Diego, Kite said. The loading site was near a San Diego warehouse where investigators last month discovered the exit to a 2,400-foot tunnel used to smuggle drugs, the longest passageway ever found under the U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol agents arrived there, stopped a black 14-passenger van and took about 30 suspected illegal immigrants into custody, authorities said. A white van struck a Border Patrol vehicle and a car on Route 905 and came to a halt as it tried to make a U-turn.Another 30 suspected illegal immigrants were taken into custody. The third van tumbled down an embankment, littering the roadway with debris. Smugglers take extreme risks to avoid being captured by the Border Patrol, sometimes racing down highways in the wrong directions with their headlights off at night. The latest crash renewed criticism from migrant advocates that the Border Patrol jeopardizes lives by chasing the vehicles. "Deploying a tire-deflating device is not the solution because the smugglers regularly swerve around them, causing them to lose control," said Claudia Smith of the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. Last year, a van loaded with eight illegal Mexican immigrants slammed head-on into a pickup truck near Jamul. Five people died. In 2003, a van drove against oncoming traffic on Interstate 8 for about 17 miles before swerving back into the westbound lanes. The van, reaching speeds of about 100 mph, spun out of control and crashed, injuring 19 people .