When Utah Highway Patrol trooper Richard Haycock discovered the driver and five passengers in an Arizona taxi cab he stopped for speeding were illegal aliens, he asked his dispatcher to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
But, due to the federal government shutdown borne of an impasse over a balanced budget measure, INS offices in Salt Lake City were closed Friday. The dispatcher was unable to determine if the driver had a history with the federal agency.UHP Sgt. Doug Hall, Haycock's supervisor, said the trooper had no choice but to let the taxi, on a purported $1,200 trip from Tucson to Chicago, continue on its way from southeastern Utah.
Illegal immigrants usually are not shy about admitting their status, Hall said Friday. In the past, he said, the INS has told the UHP that unless undocumented immigrants have criminal charges against them there is nothing UHP can do.
"There are just too many of them," he said.
The driver told Haycock he drove for J.P. Cab in Tucson. But a call to Tucson telephone information revealed no listing for such a company.
However, Dan Baker, the manager of Yellow Cab in Salt Lake City said a number of independent cabbies in the Tucson area wait in front of bus terminals, the airport and other public places for fares.
Baker says the farthest his drivers have taken a fare from Salt Lake City was to Los Angeles and Albuquerque and that many of his drivers get requests from undocumented aliens.
"Our drivers lease their cabs - they don't own them - and we discourage them from taking long-distance fares," Baker said. "We get tired of the Highway Patrol calling us to check if the car is stolen."
When told how much the J.P. driver charged for his fares, Baker said it was a good deal.
"We charge a dollar a mile and it's 1,800 miles to Chicago, so I'd say they got a bargain," Baker said. "But that driver's an optimist. I hope he got his money up front."