15-month term for attempt to smuggle girl

15-month term for attempt to smuggle in girl
By Alexis Huicochea
arizona daily star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 06.14.2008
A woman who tried to bring a 3-year-old Mexican girl into the United States illegally was sentenced Friday to 15 months in federal prison.
Cruz Aide Garcia-Enriquez, 32, tried to smuggle the girl into the country on Nov. 18 through a pedestrian lane at the Nogales Port of Entry, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Arizona.
She told an official that the girl was her niece and presented her own niece's Arizona birth certificate, the release said. The official became suspicious because Garcia-Enriquez looked nervous.
Garcia-Enriquez, of Agua Prieta, Sonora, eventually admitted that she had just met the girl and was instructed to get her across the border and drop her off at a store in Douglas, the release said. From there, a man was going to take the girl after giving Garcia-Enriquez $200.
"She thought crossing the girl would be so easy, so she agreed to do it," the release said.
The child was turned over to the Mexican Department of Family Services and has been reunited with her family, the release said.
Garcia-Enriquez was convicted of conspiracy to transport an illegal immigrant for financial gain, the release said.
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