LEAGUE CITY — League City police and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency took 62 people into custody during a sweep Thursday.
The people rounded up were suspected of being illegal immigrants. But almost all of them — even those determined to be illegal immigrants — were released a few hours later.
Sgt. Dan Krieger of the League City Police Department said officers and immigration agents set out around 7:30 a.m. and hit two spots where day laborers hang out.
That included a spot along West Walker Street, less than a block from the police station.
The other spot was in the 100 block of Texas Avenue, just off of Main Street near an apartment complex and a convenience store.
Krieger said the roundup began as police investigations into a pair of sexual assaults and a two-year-old intoxicated manslaughter case.
Among those suspects was Rigoberto Sanchez, the man League City police believe was responsible for a February 2002 car accident on state Highway 96 that killed four people. He was charged with four counts of intoxicated manslaughter.
Krieger said the three men police were looking for were also believed to be day laborers.
However, none of the three was found in the roundup Thursday.
By early afternoon, 60 of those detained in the roundup were released.
Many soon found their way back to Main Street and Texas Avenue.
Two were taken into the immigration agency’s custody. One had a warrant for an assault charge. The other had an extensive criminal history in California, said Krieger.
Louisa Deason, spokesman for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, said only those with outstanding warrants or those determined to be a threat to the community would be taken into custody.
“It’s a matter of setting a priority because we simply do not have enough beds to take them all into custody,” said Deason. “We are looking for those with a warrant of deportation, sex offenders or (those who) pose a threat to the community,” she said. “Those are the ones we are interested in.”
Those not deemed a threat or not wanted by law enforcement were let go and told they have to get their immigration status worked out, said Deason.
One of the byproducts of the housing boom in the area is the number of day laborers who spend their mornings hanging out, waiting for someone to pull up and offer a cash job.
James Rash owns the Lucky Chief Mini-Mart at Main Street and Texas Avenue. He said he was sorry to see the roundup take place.
“They were good customers,” he said. “Really, I just lost business.”
Rash said if the men waiting in his parking lot ever became a nuisance, he simply asked them to leave. He said they always complied.
“They are nice people,” he said.
Josh World, who lives nearby, said he was not surprised to hear about the roundup.
He said the laborers never bothered him, but his mother sometimes complained about their effect on the neighborhood.
“She understands it is a hard life,” he said. “But she just wants the neighborhood to look good.”
