From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Apr 22 2010 - 07:34:59 EDT
Eritrean man admits role in Central African smuggling pipeline that ran
through Valley
<http://www.themonitor.com/reporter-profile/jeremy-roebuck-333> Jeremy
Roebuck
22/04/2010
He said he came to this country seeking asylum from political persecution in
his home state — the northeast African nation of Eritrea.
But while Samuel Fessahazion was supposedly fleeing oppression in countries
across his home continent, he was actually helping dozens of his countrymen
enter the United States illegally from a base in Guatemala, federal
prosecutors said.
Fessahazion, 23, pleaded guilty Tuesday in a Houston federal court to
multiple counts of conspiracy and immigrant smuggling, admitting he served
as the Central American cog in a smuggling route that took undocumented
African immigrants through at least three continents before eventually
depositing them in Reynosa and the Rio Grande Valley.
“By bringing this smuggler to justice, we have broken a chain that runs from
Africa to South and Central America, directly into the United States,” said
Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer in a statement. “We will not allow
these dangerous smuggling organizations to profit from bringing people
illegally into the United States.”
According to court documents, Fessahazion and several unnamed accomplices
guided from six to 24 Central African nationals through cities like Dubai,
United Arab Emirates; São Paolo, Brazil; and Guatemala City, Guatemala. In
each destination, one of the organization’s operatives helped move the
migrants to their next stop on the “chain like” route.
Fessahazion’s role was to prepare the immigrants to enter Mexico illegally
from Guatemala and put them in touch with the smuggler who would lead them
from Reynosa into the United States.
But his own illegal arrival in McAllen in 2008 drew scrutiny from federal
investigators. Although he claimed that he had been traveling across Africa
fleeing persecution between 2007 and his arrival in the United States,
agents soon linked him back to the smuggling organization’s activities in
Guatemala at the time.
Fessahazion now faces up to 10 years in prison but is looking forward to his
June sentencing hearing, said his attorney — federal public defender Peter
Bray — while declining to discuss specific details of his client’s case.
“We look forward to going to sentencing and presenting his life story,” he
said. “There are a lot of mitigating circumstances in this case.”
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