http://kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=5638 ... enu216_3_3

Two women sentenced for trying to smuggle children

Nov 6, 2006 08:07 AM

Two women were each sentenced to 15 months in prison in unrelated cases for trying to smuggle children into the country.

Maria Espindola-Monge, 39, and Wendolyne Mendez-Herrera, 33, had each previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport illegal immigrants.

The women were each accused of trying to bring two children into the country at a port of entry in Nogales and claiming they were the mothers of the children and that the children were U.S. citizens.

They were to receive several hundred dollars to sneak the children into the country, prosecutors said.

Espindola-Monge, a legal resident who is the mother of 10 children who are American citizens, was expected to be deported when she has completed her sentence.

Mendez-Herrera is a a Mexican citizen.