Three women sentenced to prison for child-smuggling
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A U.S. District Court judge sentenced three women to more than a year in prison for their roles in trying to smuggle children into the United States through ports of entry.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Raner C. Collins sentenced Aracely Ayala-Gomez, 18, of Nogales, Sonora, to 15 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, said a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ayala-Gomez tried to cross through the Douglas port of entry April 24 with a 4-year-old girl using a laser visa card that didn’t belong to the girl. Officers discovered the girl was a Mexican citizen and that Ayala-Gomez was going to receive $200 to smuggler her across, the release said.

On Friday, Collins sentenced a mother and daughter to prison for trying to smuggle a 10-year-old boy into the United States. Agripina Rey-Carrasco, 46, of Phoenix, was sentenced to 15 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release and her daughter, Aracely Carrasco-Rey, 27, of Phoenix, was sentenced to 18 months in prison and three years supervised release.

The pair came through a port of entry in Nogales Aug. 18, 2006, with a boy who Rey-Carrasco claimed was her son, a news said. Her daughter, Carrasco-Rey, presented an Arizona birth certificate for the boy, and said her brother was a U.S. citizen. Officers determined the boy was a Mexican citizen and that the two women had agreed to smuggle him into the country, the release said.

Both Rey-Carrasco and Carrasco-Rey are legal permanent residents who will be turned over to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation proceedings at the conclusion of their sentences.

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