Thread: Cops Try To ID 5-year-old Girl From Smuggling Raid

Cops try to ID 5-year-old girl found during human-smuggling raid

An Arizona SWAT team found the 5-year-old inside a house they raided last week in Phoenix as part of an investigation into human smuggling.

The Arizona Republic says Darnelia doesn't know her surname, her relatives' names or where she's from in Mexico.

"That kid's been loved and cared for. I'm optimistic in human nature," Lt. Bob Smart of the state's Public Safety Department tells the paper. "Somebody will come forward, but we're not miracle workers, either. We have to follow all the evidence."

The raid, which followed reports from a woman who said her husband was being held hostage, resulted in six arrests. Eight illegal immigrants were turned over to federal authorities, the state says.

(Police photo via Arizona Republic.)

Posted by Mike Carney at 10:45 AM/ET, October 23, 2008
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Child saved from drophouse, but who is she?

by Sean Holstege and JJ Hensley -
Oct. 23, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

When SWAT team members burst into a west Phoenix drophouse, they saw the usual group of illegal immigrants. But another sight stopped them cold: a sweet-faced, 5-year-old girl.

And nearly a week later, no one knows who she is.

Darnelia didn't know her surname or the names of her parents. She also couldn't name her grandmother, who went missing after they crossed the border illegally from Agua Prieta. The little girl didn't know where she lived in Mexico.
Now, state investigators are desperately trying to reunite her with her family.

"The good news is she's in good health and spirits and had not been abused," said Lt. Bob Smart, who runs immigration enforcement for the Arizona Department of Public Safety. "That was really the only comfort we took."

But more shocks soon followed. Within days of Darnelia's being discovered Friday, two other small, unaccompanied children were found with human coyotes in a smuggling van and another drophouse, a home where illegal immigrants are held to await transfer.

"I don't think I've ever seen that in my 15 years," said Eduardo Preciado, an assistant director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona.

On Tuesday, Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrested the mother of 2-year-old Jocelyne González Martinez. The woman had come to Phoenix to be reunited with her child after the girl was found in a smuggler's van. Later that day, ICE agents raided a Mesa drophouse and rescued a 4-year-old boy after his mother in Florida reported that coyotes had threatened the child. ICE would not disclose details about the investigation.

Darnelia's case remains a mystery. DPS investigators believe the girl and her grandmother became separated after crossing the border.

The grandmother may have straggled behind, but officers also believe coyotes divided the group of immigrants and loaded Darnelia into a van bound for Phoenix.

Detectives with a specialized task force raided the house on West Mackenzie Drive, near Maryvale Golf Course, after a woman reported her common-law husband was being held hostage there.

The investigators who made the raid routinely bust violent drophouses and confront rapes, tortures and killings. In this case, they found a much less dire situation with none of the typical signs of forced captivity.

Officers rounded up six people, who were arrested on charges of extortion and human smuggling. They found eight adult suspected illegal immigrants and turned them over to ICE. And they found Darnelia.

After the noise and confusion settled, the 5-year-old stole the officers' hearts.

"She was smiling and playing with sticks in the yard and looking up in amazement at the airplanes," Smart said.

The girl remains in the custody of Child Protective Services as investigators sift through so-called pollo books. Those are rosters kept by coyotes to track immigrants' payments, destinations and relatives. Smart is hopeful they will lead to Darnelia's relatives. Coyotes told investigators that Darnelia's father was in California, but this hasn't been confirmed.

"That kid's been loved and cared for. I'm optimistic in human nature," Smart said. "Somebody will come forward, but we're not miracle workers, either. We have to follow all the evidence."

In Jocelyne's case, it took a heavy dose of international news coverage to reunite the 2-year-old with her family after sheriff's deputies found her stuffed into a human-smuggling van Saturday.

The girl's mother, Maria Demetria Martinez Avila, 23, heard about the girl from a friend who saw her photo on television. Martinez contacted authorities with the Mexican Consulate in Phoenix and was on a flight to the Valley to retrieve her daughter on Tuesday.

When Martinez arrived at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, consulate officials took her to meet with sheriff's deputies.

Martinez told deputies she had paid a coyote $3,000 to smuggle Jocelyne to Indiana, where the two were to meet.

The girl had been living with her grandfather in Oaxaca, Mexico, while Martinez worked as a maid in Chicago, according to sheriff's officials.

Martinez thought she was coming to Arizona to be reunited with her child, who was still in CPS custody.

But when consulate officials dropped Martinez off at a Valley hotel, deputies arrested her. She was booked into custody on suspicion of child endangerment, conspiracy to commit child abuse and conspiracy to commit human smuggling.

The Mexican Consulate released a statement Wednesday indicating Jocelyne was en route to Oaxaca where authorities would reunite the child with relatives.

"The unification of Jocelyne with her mother went astray," the consulate said, referring to the arrest and adding that it will help expedite Martinez's "release and safe return to Mexico."

http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoe ... a1023.html

They need to get this girls picture in news papers all over Mexico to help ID her.

I find this quote from the article interesting, "was on a flight to the Valley to retrieve her daughter on Tuesday."

I thought illegal aliens phoney ID's weren't supposed to get them on airplanes...???

Rules call for Real ID to fly

Saturday, January 12, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) - Millions of air travelers may find going through airport security much more complicated this spring, as the Bush administration heads toward a showdown with state governments over post-Sept. 11 rules for new driver's licenses.

By May, the dispute could leave millions of people unable to use their licenses to board planes, but privacy advocates called that a hollow threat by federal officials.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, who was unveiling final details of the REAL ID Act's rules on Friday, said that if states want their licenses to remain valid for air travel after May 2008, those states must seek a waiver indicating they want more time to comply with the legislation.

Chertoff said that for any state which doesn't seek such a waiver by May, residents of that state will have to use a passport or certain types of federal border-crossing cards if they want to avoid a vigorous secondary screening at airport security.

"The last thing I want to do is punish citizens of a state who would love to have a REAL ID license but can't get one," Chertoff said. "But in the end, the rule is the rule as passed by Congress."

The plan's chief critic, the American Civil Liberties Union, called Chertoff's deadline a bluff - and urged state governments to call him on it.

"Are they really prepared to shut those airports down? Which is what effectively would happen if the residents of those states are going to have to go through secondary scrutiny," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program. "This is a scare tactic."

So far, 17 states have passed legislation or resolutions objecting to the REAL ID Act's provisions, many due to concerns it will cost them too much to comply. The 17, according to the ACLU, are Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington.

Maine officials said Friday they were unsure if their own state law even allows them to ask for a waiver.

"It certainly seems to be an effort by the federal government to create compliance with REAL ID whether states have an interest in doing so or not," said Don Cookson, spokesman for the Maine secretary of state's office.


The Sept. 11 attacks were the main motivation for the changes: The hijacker-pilot who flew into the Pentagon, Hani Hanjour, had four driver's licenses and ID cards from three states.

The Homeland Security Department and other officials say the only way to ensure an ID is safe is to check it against secure government data; critics such as the ACLU say that creates a system that is more likely to be infiltrated and have its personal data pilfered.

Congress passed the REAL ID law in 2005, but the effort has been delayed by opposition from states worried about the cost and civil libertarians upset about what they believe are invasions of privacy.

Under the rules announced Friday, Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964, will have to get more secure driver's licenses in the next six years, over which time the new requirements would gradually be phased in.

A key deadline would come in 2011, when federal authorities hope all states will be in compliance, and the regulations would not take full effect for all Americans until 2017.

To make the plan more appealing to cost-conscious states, federal authorities drastically reduced the expected cost from $14.6 billion to $3.9 billion, a 73 percent decline, said Homeland Security officials familiar with the plan.

By 2014, anyone seeking to board an airplane or enter a federal building would have to present a REAL ID-compliant card, with the notable exception of those older than 50, Homeland Security officials said.

The over-50 exemption was created to give states more time to get everyone new licenses, and officials say the risk of someone in that age group being a terrorist, illegal immigrant or con artist is much less. By 2017, even those over 50 must have a REAL ID-compliant card to board a plane.

Among other details of the REAL ID plan:

-The traditional driver's license photograph would be taken at the beginning of the application instead of the end so that if someone is rejected for failure to prove identity and citizenship, the applicant's photo would be kept on file and checked if that person tried to con the system again.

-The cards will have three layers of security measures but will not contain microchips as some had expected. States will be able to choose from a menu which security measures they will put in their cards.

- After Social Security and immigration status checks become nationwide practice, officials plan to move on to more expansive security checks. State DMV offices would be required to verifying birth certificates; checking with other states to ensure an applicant doesn't have more than one license; and check with the State Department to verify applicants who use passports to get a driver's license.

---

On the Net:

Homeland Security Department: http://www.dhs.gov/

ACLU Web site opposing REAL ID: http://www.realnightmare.org

[quote="mapwife"]I find this quote from the article interesting, "was on a flight to the Valley to retrieve her daughter on Tuesday."

I thought illegal aliens phoney ID's weren't supposed to get them on airplanes...???



That's assuming she flew as a regular traveler.

Because this was a governmental matter, involving law enforcement agencies and consulates, she most likely didn't just go to the nearest airport and hop on a plane of her own accord.

She was, most likely, accompanied by law enforcement and/or consulate officials, more in the capacity of a material witness or investigative lead.....not to mention that her arrest had already been planned..... and she may not have even flown on a regular commercial flight.





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