Sri Lankan nationals detained at McAllen airport

McALLEN -- A man accused of aiding three Sri Lankan nationals to enter the country illegally is set to make an early court appearance this morning.

U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested Suresh Suntharalingam, 38, of Canada, on Wednesday, after customs inspectors at McAllen-Miller International Airport found him holding plane tickets for the three illegal immigrants carrying fake Canadian identification cards.

The men later told authorities that their families had paid $32,000 to Suntharalingam to guide them to Canada through Mexico and the United States.

After flying into Mexico City and traveling to the border, the group snuck across the Rio Grande by boat on Dec. 28. They had been living in a McAllen hotel ever since, according to a criminal complaint filed in Suntharalingam's case.

It was not immediately clear Monday whether Suntharalingam had retained an attorney. He declined to answer investigators' questions without a lawyer.

All four men made their initial appearances in federal court Thursday and spoke with the judge via a teleconference with a translator fluent in Tamil, one of two official languages in Sri Lanka.

Fighting between the Sri Lankan military and paramilitary groups such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has increased across the country since January 2008, according to a U.S. State Department travel warning issued last month.

Bomb explosions in densely populated areas have killed dozens of civilians in the island nation off the southwest Indian coast.

Jeremy Roebuck covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.