HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Residents of a neighborhood watch group chat reported sightings of possible Chinese nationals walking the streets of their village on Monday afternoon.
Mongmong-Toto-Maite Mayor Rudy Paco, 2nd right, and three law enforcement officers on Monday questioned three individuals, center, who village residents suspect entered the island illegally. No arrests were made.
After hours of investigation, no arrests were made, even though authorities suspect three men of illegally entering Guam as far back as a month ago.
Mongmong-Toto-Maite Mayor Rudy Paco said the possible crime was noted by the village’s neighborhood watch WhatsApp group chat, “suspicious individuals that speak very, very little English” were seen walking on J.A. Camacho Street and past J.Q. San Miguel Elementary School.
Paco added the individuals were three men carrying backpacks who Paco looked for himself.
“I went around looking for them, but I assume somebody picked them up. I drove around the whole village,” Paco said. He added that the men walking around was “out of the ordinary” for the village.
Guam Customs and Quarantine Agency Director Ike Peredo, when The Guam Daily Post asked about the sighting, was initially unaware of the situation. However, after gathering more information on the report, Peredo commented that because the individuals were seen far from Guam’s border, they will not be investigating the case.
“The only thing we can do is, if it’s close to the border we can look into it — but other than that we have no other information,” said Peredo, who also opined about a responsibility to not have law enforcement engage in racially motivated investigations.
Racial profiling
“We just want to be cautious because we don’t want to be accused of racial profiling,” Peredo added before saying the Guam Police Department could look into the suspected crimes.
According to GPD spokeswoman Officer Berlyn Savella, the department did not receive any calls, as of Monday afternoon, however, authorities looked into it with the help of the multiagency task force following an inquiry from The Guam Daily Post.
None of the individuals were arrested, according to Savella, but information was gathered by the task force after they were found in the area of the initial sighting.
Chief of Police Stephen Ignacio added the individuals’ arrival about a month ago was undetected, and further emphasized the department would need a valid legal reason to stop someone.
“We can’t just stop you because you’re Chinese,” Ignacio said before explaining despite the recent unlawful arrivals consisting of boats carrying multiple people, they have only arrested the operators of the boats.
“Everybody else is still here in the community,” said Ignacio who added information gathered, such as names are being shared with Customs and will be passed on to their federal partners.
As the investigation into the recent rise of unlawful arrivals remains ongoing, the public is encouraged to report suspicious activity to Customs at (671) 642-8071 or GPD at (671) 475-8615/16/17.
