EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A U.S. citizen allegedly tasked by smugglers with making multiple trips to pick up migrants, take them to hotels, pick them up from stash houses and even arrange for bus travel is in federal custody.
Border Patrol agents arrested Alan William Fischbach, 54, in Tucson, Arizona, last week after allegedly witnessing him drive twice in the same morning to pick up migrants at an isolated spot off Interstate 19 leading to the border city of Nogales.
Fischback allegedly picked up two groups of migrants hidden in desert brush, drove them to a hotel in Tucson, then took two of their “foot guides” to a bus station so they could return to Nogales.
Court records show he made a stop along the way at an apartment complex where he left four migrants in sweltering temperatures inside his rented SUV after he suspected being followed and decided to call an Uber.
Agents stopped the share-ride vehicle and arrested Fischback in possession of the hotel keys where he allegedly dropped off several migrants. Agents also went back to the apartment complex and retrieved from the SUV the four migrants who “appeared to be in distress from the high temperatures.”
In a post-arrest interview, Fischer allegedly admitted picking up 12 migrants that day and arranging for the return to Nogales of the two cartel caretakers who walked them through the desert to Green Valley, Arizona, after helping them cross the border.
Fischbach said smugglers pay him $300 for each migrant he picks up in the Nogales area and $150 for those he shuttles near Green Valley, court documents show. He allegedly said he has picked up migrants from other hotels and mobile homes and has made more than $6,000 for his work — though the smugglers still owe him $5,100.
He was charged with bringing in and harboring illegal aliens and has a scheduled court hearing Sept. 10 in U.S. District Court in Tucson.
Border agents also intercepted the two foot guides before they left the country. Rosario Robles Morales and Jose Antonio Flores Ramirez, two citizens of Mexico who have previously been deported from the United States, also were charged with migrant smuggling.
Read: Read More