By PATRICK GOWER
Ninety New Zealand and Australian big-rig truck drivers face deportation from the United States after a federal probe into illegal immigration.
The long-haul truckies, recruited by newspaper advertisements offering them the chance to see America and make lots of money, had been kept in the US by federal authorities as potential witnesses against the people who brought them there.
But at the end of last month, prosecutors ordered most of the drivers, who had been working on false visas, to leave by the end of this month.
The deadline will end the odd, transient life of the truckies, who have been held for the past year but were allowed to keep driving.
Prosecutors allege the ringleader of the immigration operation was a Little Rock-based Australian driver, Peter Andrew Ruston, aged 51.
They say he placed the newspaper advertisements and organised associates to recruit drivers and send them to be trained as Arkansas-licensed truckies.
Prosecutors in Little Rock, Arkansas - an American transport hub - say Ruston gave the truckies contracts.
In return, they paid him part of their earnings of 50c to 60c a mile.
A trip from Little Rock to Los Angeles and back was worth about $US800 ($1610) to a driver and $US160 ($321) to Ruston.
Federal officials allege that, from the mid-1990s, Ruston made about $US10.9 million ($21.9 million).
He and his associates handled the drivers' paperwork and charged them up to $US1800 for arranging it.
Among the New Zealand recruits was Dave Bryant, a former ballroom dancer from Hamilton, who was left wondering what to do with his life after his dancing partner became ill in 1995.
He saw an advertisement offering big money and a chance to see the States.
"I thought, 'What could be wrong with that?'" he said.
Mr Bryant arrived in Little Rock five years ago, on a Sunday.
By the following Wednesday, he had a commercial driver's licence. Next day he was on the road.
But last year, federal agents raided trucking companies in Arkansas and elsewhere looking for illegal workers.
Held in the US as potential witnesses, the truckies formed an encampment in Little Rock, living in their truck cabs and spending their days fishing, drinking and telling stories.
"We're just the piggies in the middle," says Mr Bryant, 42.
His father, Roger Bryant, told the Herald from Hamilton last night that Dave had told them there was nothing to be worried about.
"We don't know anything about the legality of the permits, but he has always liked it over there," he said.
"Last we heard, he is okay and he will be home for Anzac Day."
The secretary of the Amalgamated Workers' Union, Lindsay Chappell, said the 90 truckies in Little Rock were the largest number of stranded drivers he had heard about. "I've heard of plenty of New Zealand and Australian drivers being caught out when schemes like this have fallen through, but never this many."
Mr Chappell said New Zealand drivers were easily lured by the apparent glamour of driving big rigs across the United States on long hauls.
But the reality was often quite different.
"We see guys who want to go over there all the time.
"Our advice is make sure you are working for a legal operation," he said.
"They go over under the illusion they are there legally, but it turns out they are down as tourists or on student visas."
New Zealand drivers have been left stranded as illegal aliens in the past.
Last year, two New Zealanders were part of a mainly Australian group accused of smuggling Kiwi truck drivers into the United States to work illegally.
The United States Attorney-General's Office sought to extradite New Zealanders Hoani Harawira and Bob Cullinane for recruiting the drivers.
Wheels fall off big-rig dream
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