CBP: Woman tried to smuggle Central American children to US
February 15, 2012 3:09 PM
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stopped a woman Tuesday suspected of smuggling two children into the country, CBP spokesman Eddie Perez said.
The 23-year-old woman presented birth certificates at the Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville for two children she traveled with by vehicle.
The woman is a U.S. citizen who lives in Matamoros, Perez said.
Officers ran the birth certificates through a government database and believed they were not those of the children in the car.
Further investigation revealed that one child, 9, is from El Salvador and the other, 10, is from Honduras, he said.
Authorities took the woman into custody and the children will be returned to their home countries, Perez said.
