April 1, 2003 – Police on St. John took a total of 28 undocumented immigrants into custody in two separate incidents Monday and Tuesday, according to Sgt. Thomas Hannah, police spokesman.
On Monday afternoon, three Haitian nationals, two men and a woman, were apprehended in the Coral Bay area. On Tuesday morning, 25 Chinese nationals, 16 men and nine women, were picked up in Annaberg on the island's North Shore.
A third sighting of illegal immigrants was reported Monday morning, but authorities at the Zone D Police Station in Cruz Bay could provide no information about that incident. Hannah said those taken into custody in the two other cases were all turned over to officials of the new federal Department of Homeland Security.
The two cases were the first of multiple undocumented immigrants being reported to police and taken into custody on St. John this year. In recent years, dozens of sightings and hundreds of apprehensions have taken place.
The only other case so far this year came on March 2, when a lone woman appeared at the St. John police station requesting political asylum.
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