DANGEROUS CROSSING
Windsor-area man charged with helping five men enter Detroit via CP Rail tunnel
A 53-year-old Canadian resident from the Windsor area was arrested in Detroit this week, charged with smuggling illegal aliens through the CP Rail tunnel connecting Windsor with Detroit. Juan Antonio Garcia-Jimenez charged a fee of US$1,500 per person for his help, according to U.S. District Court documents.
His first client knew him as “Antonio” or “Don Tono.” Two more knew him as “Peter.” Two others nicknamed him “Trailero,” Spanish for truck driver.
The first met him in a restaurant in Leamington. The next two met him in his cab outside a market in Leamington. The last two met him through “a friend.”
All five clients were foreign farm workers in Leamington. According to U.S. District Court documents, they paid Juan Antonio Garcia-Jimenez — his real name — US$1,500 each to help them risk their lives illegally crossing the border into the United States through the CP Rail tunnel. The allegations have not been proven in court.
They were all caught by the U.S. Border Patrol, and this week, U.S. officials arrested Garcia-Jimenez, a 53-year-old naturalized Canadian resident from Guatemala who lives in Windsor.
“Alien smuggling through this train tunnel is not just unlawful, it can be incredibly dangerous,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Schneider said.
Juan Pablo Ramirez-Torres, a Mexican who was working at Highline Mushrooms in Leamington, wanted to cross into the U.S. He met Garcia-Jimenez in a Leamington restaurant late last year or early this year. He knew him as “Antonio.” “Antonio” told Ramirez-Torres he could help him. Last March 18, at about 11:30 p.m., “Antonio” picked up Ramirez-Torres at his apartment in Kingsville. He was driving a dark minivan. He drove Ramirez-Torres to a location near the entrance to the 2.5-kilometre rail tunnel used for freight trains. He showed him where to enter and told him to wait until after the train to the U.S. had passed. Then the cameras wouldn’t capture him, he said. When Ramirez-Torres reached the other end, a man named Jose Rodriguez would be waiting.
Instead, U.S. Border Patrol agents picked him up. Ramirez-Torres paid “Antonio,” whom he also called “Don Tono,” but the documents don’t state how much.
Obseli Fidencio Maldonado- Gomez, who worked at Nature Fresh Farms in Leamington, and Cesar Florentin Lopez-Hernandez, who told American authorities he worked at Mastronardi Enterprises in Leamington but is believed to have left the company two years ago, met Garcia-Jimenez when he was driving a taxi outside a market in Leamington. They knew him as “Peter.” He drove a grey minivan and offered to smuggle the two men into the U.S. via the tunnel for US$1,500 each. They paid. “Peter” picked them up on July 13 at about 11 p.m. He told them the same thing he’d told Ramirez-Torres: wait for the next train to the U.S. to pass so they don’t show up on the cameras. Lopez-Hernandes carried a list of street names near the Greyhound bus station in Detroit, where they wanted to catch a bus to North Carolina. They entered the tunnel at 1:30 a.m. and emerged at 2 a.m. — into the hands of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Brayan Corado-Recinos, 24, from Guatemala, worked at an unnamed farm in Leamington. He got Garcia-Jimenez’s phone number from a “friend” at a neighbouring farm. He told a co-worker, 25-year-old Ipolito Carpio-Recinos, also from Guatemala, about his plan and Carpio-Recinos also wanted to go.
They nicknamed GarciaJimenez “Trailero,” the Spanish word for truck driver, because of his job as a taxi driver. CoradoRecinos texted “Trailero” on July 18. After several conversations, the arrangements were made. “Trailero” would help them for US$1,500 each.
He picked them up in a dark minivan with grey trim near the unnamed farms in Leamington where they worked on July 29. Both men planned to stay in a hotel in Detroit for a couple of nights, so they needed American money. “Trailero” took them to the currency exchange at Casino Windsor.
For three hours, the three men waited near the tunnel for a train to enter the U.S. Finally, at about 3:30 a.m., “Trailero” told them there probably wouldn’t be a train so they should start walking. He told them another person would be waiting for them near Green Dot Stables restaurant. That person would take them to a hotel. But the only people waiting for them were border patrol agents. It was no coincidence that border patrol agents were waiting. Despite what the men were told, the monitored surveillance cameras captured images of them entering the tunnel, said assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Fairchild. Two of the men, Carpio-Recinos and Corado-Recinos, are charged with improper entry and are being held by the United States Marshals Service. Their lawyers did not return calls.
The other three men have not been charged yet. Garcia-Jimenez, who has had a Canadian passport since 2016 and has travelled to the U.S. frequently since then, was arrested while crossing legally into the U.S. on Wednesday.
He has been charged with bringing in and harbouring aliens and is being detained. A federal defender will be appointed on his behalf. No one answered the door at his home, identified in court documents as 1482 Bruce Ave. The blinds were closed and the curtains drawn at the red brick house. Newspapers and fliers were scattered across the front porch. It didn’t appear difficult to catch Garcia-Jimenez. He gave all five men the same phone number. The RCMP traced the number to him. American authorities then got a photograph of him from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the men identified him in the photo.
Two vehicles described by the men matched two vehicles registered to Garcia-Jimenez. One vehicle was often seen in Leamington and was used to cross the border multiple times.
A string of text messages detailed the arrangements to smuggle Corado-Recinos-and-Carpio-Recinos into the U.S. Video footage from Casino Windsor also showed Garcia-Jimenez leading the two men to the currency exchange desk. Highline Mushrooms declined to discuss its employees, but human resources director Susan McBride confirmed the company uses the federal government’s temporary foreign worker program for harvesting all year. Mastronardi Enterprises declined to speak publicly. Nature Fresh Farms didn’t respond to calls.
A “very, very low percentage” of foreign workers go missing, said McBride. If they do, the company notifies the government, though it isn’t obligated to do so. Alberto Bernal Acero, the Mexican consul in Leamington, said he’s aware that some workers want to cross into the U.S., but this is the first incident he has heard of.
“Usually what I find is people from the U.S. want to come to Canada because the conditions in Michigan are not the best,” said Santiago Escobar, co-ordinator of the Agricultural Workers Alliance in Leamington.
Asked if other foreign farm workers from Essex County have crossed into the U.S. illegally, Fairchild said, “My guess is yes, but we don’t know.”