AirStar6

AirStar6 flew over the scene Wednesday.

Burke County sheriff's deputies detained eight illegal immigrants Wednesday in Charlotte, after they were caught outside the city.

According to police, officer pulled over a van carrying the eight immigrants -- two of them minors -- for driving erratically. They were on a nationwide journey from Arizona to Atlanta, Savannah and North Carolina.

Sheriff John McDeavit expressed frustration with the lack of enforcement of federal immigration laws. Often, immigration officers are too busy to even respond to local requests, the sheriff said.

"[Illegal immigration] is not becoming a huge problem; it is a huge problem," McDeavit said. "What are we to do when they say, 'We can't get him, or we can't take them to them?' We have to turn them loose.

"Why should my county have to bear the brunt of the costs of housing? We have 250 beds in the jail, and I could fill them up working the interstate."

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North Carolina Rep. Sue Myreck proposes taking the enforcement issue a step further. She proposes that the federal government cut transportation dollars to states that continue to grant drivers' licenses to illegal aliens.

Her proposal would not have affected today's detainment. No one in the van had a drivers' license, only IDs from Mexico.