C.B.P. News Release

Customs and Border Protection Officers Stop 3 Undocumented Children from Being Smuggled Into U.S. via Taxi

(Thursday, July 30, 2009)

Brownsville, Texas - U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers working at the Veterans’ International Bridge discovered three undocumented children as passengers in a taxi. Two females were arrested on felony alien smuggling charges.

On July 29, at the Veterans’ International Bridge Kathleen Lydia Zuniga, 35, a U.S. citizen from Bunch, Okla., and Annetta Beatrice Fields, 35, a U.S. citizen from Muskogee, Okla., arrived at the Brownsville port of entry as passengers in a taxi along with three minor children. The women identified the children as their own and provided birth certificates for each child.

CBP officers conducting a routine examination of the passengers established that the birth certificates did not belong to the three minors and they did not possess the appropriate immigration entry documents to legally enter the United States. The taxi was escorted to secondary for further examination. At secondary CBP officers further identified the children as Mexican citizens. CBP officers arrested Zuniga and Fields on federal alien smuggling charges. The minor children were processed and returned to Mexican Immigration officials.

“CBP officers encountered these three children traveling without their parents in a failed smuggling attempt. The children were returned to Mexico and will be reunited with their family. This was a good interception by Brownsville CBP officers,â€