Mahanoy Township Police say they’ve made four immigration arrests during two separate operations earlier this month.
The most recent incident occurred on April 11, when police say a routine loud music complaint escalated into what police refer to as a “high-risk enforcement action”.
According to a public release, Mahanoy Township officer Anthony Maldonado was in the area of Vulcan Rd. area when he heard distant gunshots and tracked the source across multiple jurisdictions to a remote location at the Route 339 wind farm, an area police say has been associated with trespassing and suspicious activity.
Mahanoy Township Chief Jody Long tells Coal Region Canary the gunshots were more like “rapid gunfire”.
Upon arrival, Maldonado observed a large gathering with multiple vehicles and a white BMW SUV positioned near the entrance. Some of the vehicles had roof-mounted speaker systems, police say. After initiating a “felony stop”, initial commands in English were ignored so Maldonado issued commands in Spanish, which resulted in compliance.
Eight individuals, including seven men and one woman, were taken into custody without incident. The department says the operation resulted in multiple arrests, a firearm seizure, and the discovery of federal immigration violations. Mahanoy Township is a Task Force Model member of the ICE 287(g) program. Long says the department contacted ICE and discovered that two individuals at the scene were in the country illegally and there was no notice that one was even in the country.
Mahanoy City, Shenandoah, and East Union Township police departments assisted at the scene.
Three days earlier, on April 8, Mahanoy Township police say a commercial vehicle safety check along Burma Rd. resulted in the discovery of more suspected immigration violations.
Federal immigration agents were on the scene to provide support as police inspected more than a dozen vehicles, police say. Long says the safety check was a department operation, not an ICE operation. During the detail, two operators were identified as being in the country illegally.
Police say the two individuals were taken into custody by Mahanoy Township officers and later transported to a federal processing center in York County. One vehicle was also impounded for safety violations during the check.
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