San Antonio police arrest accused immigrant smuggler, release immigrants

San Antonio police arrested Herbert Alan Nichols, 58, of Houston, for allegedly smuggling a dozen people in a tractor trailer on Dec. 23 in the 1300 block of Splashtown Drive. San Antonio police arrested Herbert Alan Nichols, 58, of Houston, for allegedly smuggling a dozen people in a tractor trailer on Dec. 23 in the 1300 block of Splashtown Drive. Photo: Google Maps Photo: Google Maps Image 1 of / 44 Caption Close San Antonio police arrest accused immigrant smuggler, release immigrants 1 / 44 Back to Gallery

In an unusual move, San Antonio police launched a recent human smuggling investigation without the help of federal immigration authorities.

Police arrested Herbert Alan Nichols, 58, of Houston, on Dec. 23 after an SAPD officer found him near a tractor trailer with 12 people inside. Instead of turning the case over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s criminal investigation arm, police charged Nichols under a state smuggling law.

Detectives interviewed the 12 people found in the truck, who were suspected of being in the country illegally, then released them, according to a police report.

Nichols’ arrest comes as the city of San Antonio has been at the forefront of national immigration issues. The city is part of a lawsuit challenging the new Texas law on so-called sanctuary cities, which created penalties for local officials who have policies preventing law enforcement officers from asking about immigration status of people they detain.

San Antonio previously prohibited its officers from making such inquiries — because immigration is a federal matter — but had to remove the prohibition under the new law. The city’s new policy simply makes it clear to officers that immigration enforcement is not a priority.

Courts struck down the portion of the law that punishes officials who “materially limit … the enforcement of immigration laws.” An appeal is pending in the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

A spokesman for Mayor Ron Nirenberg referred questions about the recent incident to SAPD.

Sgt. Michelle Ramos, a police spokeswoman, said the department received a $500,000 grant last year to train officers to identify and investigate human smuggling and trafficking.

“We do have a state statute that allows us to investigate these cases,” Ramos said. “My understanding is because this is the second one this year, I think it’s a good idea that we do take the lead on this.”

“We certainly will work with our federal counterparts,” Ramos added. “We have a working relationship.”

The December incident came months after police found dozens of people from Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador who had been smuggled from Laredo in a tractor trailer and left in a South Side parking lot last July. Ten people died from suffocation in the sweltering trailer.

Most of the 29 survivors were detained by federal officials and many were later deported. In that case, the survivors were “flushed down the tubes,” said Jonathan Ryan, the executive director of Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. He applauded San Antonio police for not turning the witnesses of the December incident over to ICE.

“In both cases what you had was an individual being prosecuted for smuggling, for exploiting people’s hopes and fears and taking money and risking their lives in the process. In both cases the immigrants served as the principal witnesses, without whose testimony there would be no prosecution,” said Ryan, whose organization represents immigrants who were being smuggled in both incidents. “In the July event, the individuals were being held in a private, for-profit prison for weeks at taxpayer expense, to achieve what appears to be the same result the police are going to get in this case by pursuing state smuggling charges.”

On Dec. 23, a police officer found Nichols pacing outside a tractor trailer parked in the 1600 block of Splashtown Drive after being flagged down by a motorist that afternoon, according to a police report.

“The complainant then stated that there was a trailer with some individuals in it and that two females were right outside crying,” the report states.

The officer found 12 people in the trailer, ages 16 through 41, none of whom required medical attention. One man from Guatemala said he’d been “picked up from somewhere in the woods” and “was given a ride to San Antonio,” according to the police report.

Police Chief William McManus arrived on the scene and Nichols, a 57-year-old woman who was also considered a suspect and the 12 immigrants were taken to police headquarters. There, Nichols admitted to picking up the immigrants at a warehouse in Laredo and transporting them to San Antonio, according to the police report. The 12 immigrants were released.

Nichols was charged with smuggling of persons, a state law that can carry up to 20 years in prison if one of the people being smuggled is younger than 18. He was still in the Bexar County Jail Wednesday afternoon.

Local police rarely use the charge. In Bexar County, only one person has been prosecuted under the state smuggling of persons law, which was created in 2011, according to online court records.

An ICE spokeswoman said the agency offered assistance, but police decided to pursue the case on their own.

The state smuggling law doesn’t require police to show that the people being smuggled are illegal immigrants, only that the smuggler used a “motor vehicle, aircraft, or watercraft to transport an individual with the intent to ... conceal the individual from a peace officer or special investigator” and did so “for a pecuniary benefit.”

Local law enforcement agencies that encounter human smugglers usually reach out to Homeland Security Investigations, the criminal investigative branch of ICE, said Julian Calderas, the former deputy field office director in San Antonio for ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations, the branch that handles deportations.

“It’s really unusual. I don’t think that I ever saw a situation where there was clearly organized smuggling that they didn’t,” said Calderas, now the CEO of the consulting firm XFed. “This is clearly organized; 18-wheelers, those are usually smuggling rings or organized crime. It would seem very unusual that they would not reach out for some sort of assistance or even give (federal officials) the opportunity to prosecute.”

Calderas said he was surprised police decided to charge the state crime, “especially in light of the recent deaths in an 18-wheeler last year in a similar situation.”

If ICE had handled the investigation, the immigrants likely would have been held as material witnesses and possibly put into deportation proceedings.

Luis Vera, a lawyer for the League of United Latin American Citizens who represents the border town of El Cenizo in its challenge to SB 4, said he thinks it’s unlikely San Antonio’s decision to use the state charge and release the immigrants being smuggled violates SB 4.

“The question is, does the city have a policy that interferes with an officer’s right to question or arrest?” Vera said. SB 4 “talks about policy. The courts have said that localities have a right to manage their local funds and to prioritize how they use those funds.”

jbuch@express-news.net | Twitter: @jlbuch