Guardsmen smuggling immigrants

[Bart]

Gee, two Hispanics and a brutha. Should we be surprised?This country is so screwed up!


http://www.star-telegram.com/news/story/133693.html
<H1>Guardsmen on border accused of running smuggling ring</H1>
<H3>
<DIV =byline>By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
<DIV =creditline>The Associated Press</H3>


LAREDO, Texas -- Three National Guardsmen assigned to the Texas-Mexico border were accused of running an immigrant smuggling ring after 24 immigrants were found inside a van that one of them was driving, a U.S. attorney said Monday.


The three, arrested late Thursday and Friday, were arraigned Monday on a federal charge of conspiring to transport illegal immigrants.


Pfc. Jose Rodrigo Torres, 26, and Sgt. Julio Cesar Pacheco, 25, both of Laredo, and Sgt. Clarence Hodge Jr., 36, of Fort Worth, were arrested near Laredo.


A Border Patrol agent found 24 illegal immigrants inside a van Torres was driving along Interstate 35 near Cotulla, Texas, about 68 miles north of the border, prosecutors said. Torres was in uniform at the time of his arrest Thursday.


The van was leased by the National Guard, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.


Prosecutors accused Hodge of helping Torres pass through a Border Patrol checkpoint on the highway by making it look like the two were conducting Guard business.


Pacheco was accused of recruiting soldiers to transport the migrants for $1,000 to $3,500 a trip. He and Hodge were arrested Friday.

 

[JoeV]

With as boring of a job those guys have, and them being Army, this does not surprise me.

 

[reclaimsocal]

Foederati. Has history taught us nothing?

 

[screamingeagle]

Stand these guys in front of a firing squad and this nonsense will stop.

 

[LittleRebel]

Foederati. Has history taught us nothing?

people like that do not care to study history, my friend.

 

[JoeV]

Making $4500 a month I guess is not enough for Army guys. No wonder they were kicked out of hotels in New Mexico for bringing in hookers.

 

[White Shogun]

JoeV,
I'm interested in where you obtained the $4500 per month figure. You're not talking about pay, right? Money they get from the government for being on temporary assignment somewhere might do it. But not pay.

The most an E-3 (PFC) with 10 years of service (cap) can make is $3208 a month, and that includes base pay, housing allowance, monetary food allowance, and the tax advantages of untaxed allowances. I don't know if they receive hazardous duty pay for serving on the border in Laredo, Texas, but they probably should.

The sergeants could make close to $4500 ($,295) but that includes all the bennies listed above.

Unless, like I said, you mean the money spent by the government to send these guys away from home, covering meals, hotels, etc. Maybe then?

 

[JoeV]

Yeah if you figure in the per diem money for Laredo
[url]https://secureapp2.hqda.pentagon.mil/perdiem/perdiemrates.ht ml[/url]
of 44 dollars a day (1300 or so a month) then you average around 4500 or so a month. No hazardous duty pay for border guys, but everyone down here is on TDY status, so they get the housing allowance, plus family seperation pay, which for some people can be even more than that. I have an E-4 buddy who makes more than I do, just because he has a kid.Edited by: JoeV

 

[JoeV]

Ok depending on where the PFC lives, he is not making 4500 a month, but he easily is getting 3500 a month, and the E-5s ARE making the 4500 a month if not more.

 

[White Shogun]

Ok depending on where the PFC lives, he is not making 4500 a month, but he easily is getting 3500 a month, and the E-5s ARE making the 4500 a month if not more.

I know it seems like I'm splitting hairs, but that's not my intention. Those figures include housing, free meals at the mess and / or BAQ, right? The reason I ask is the actual salary figures are way too low for that, from what I saw on a couple of different military sites.

But you're right, guys can really make a killing on per diem.