Thread: AZ-Phoenix woman gets prison for smuggling children into US

May 3, 12:57 PM EDT

Phoenix woman gets prison for smuggling children into US

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- A Phoenix woman has been sentenced to 27 months in federal prison for trying to smuggle two Mexican children into the U.S.

Monica Rodriguez was arrested last July as she tried to enter the country at Nogales. The 27-year-old was with two boys and presented Arizona birth certificates belonging to her own children to show they legal residents.

Customs agents interviewed the 3- and 13-year-old boys and became suspicious. Rodriguez eventually admitted that the children weren't hers and that she had been paid $500 to bring them across the border.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Rodriguez never showed up for court and was re-arrested in December as she again tried to enter the U.S. at Nogales. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transport illegal aliens for financial gain and was sentenced Friday.

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What about the parents of the children, did ICE pick them up? I know, it's highly unlikely.