The Whitfield County Sheriff's Office arrested 11 people Thursday for being in the country illegally.
According to an incident report, the arrest began with a suspended license plate. A deputy was in the median of Interstate 75 around 6 a.m., scanning tags. A cargo van drove by in the northbound lane, and the deputy notices that officers had already suspended this tag. The report does not say why.
The deputy pursued the 2012 Nissan and stopped it at the bottom of the exit ramp at mile marker 333. According to the report, the deputy found a driver and nine passengers. They were from the Atlanta area and came to Dalton to work on a roof.
The deputy asked the driver, Victor Perez-Sanchez, for a driver's license. He gave him a Guatemalan ID card. The deputy decided to arrest Perez Sanchez for driving without a license and driving with a suspended plate.
"Deputy Henderson spoke to the occupants of the van and noticed that they all were very nervous and where (sic) shaking," an officer later wrote in an incident report.
Another deputy arrived on scene and asked for identification from the passengers. Three people gave him Honduran IDs and another passenger handed over a Bank of America card with his face on it.
Jose Perez-Sanchez then pulled up in a Toyota Tacoma and explained he was with the group. According to the report, a deputy asked him for his driver's license, and he produced a Guatemalan ID. The deputy then arrested him for the same charges as he did Victor Perez-Sanchez - plus with an additional charge of permitting an unlicensed driver to operate a vehicle.
The deputies then brought all 11 people to the Whitfield County Jail with a hold for ICE agents. The hold means officers figured out the people were here illegally. It is not a guarantee that they will be deported, though, as they need to go through a court process.
By Friday afternoon, a booking officer said, the two women in the group - Melinda Sanchez and Vanessa Del-Cid - were en route to the Atlanta City Detention Center, an immigration processing site.
Two 17 year olds in the group were also no longer at the Whitfield County Jail. The booking officer was not sure where they went, and an ICE spokesman could not speak to their specific cases on Friday.
According to the report the people detained worked for Green Circle Demolition, located in Atlanta. A reporter left a message Friday that has not been returned.