The agency said that earlier this week, two American citizens were arrested by El Centro Sector Customs and Border Conterfuntion (CBP) agents.
The female driver and passenger were transporting two girls, ages 10 and 12, both without names, as they approached Highway 86 Immigration Checkpoint near Westmoreland, California.
The CBP claimed that the driver was driving from Arizona to California first, but later admitted that she crossed the Mexican and southern US borders earlier in the day at Arizona's San Luis Entry Port. The vehicle was then referred for a secondary inspection.
Two unnamed female suspects were caught smuggling their children into the United States. (US Customs and Border Protection)
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During the inspection process, the agent noticed that the child's name and photograph did not match those on their ID, and found that it was not related to the driver or passenger. After questioning, they discovered that the children were unaccompanied minors from Mexico.
“And this is how children start to trafficking,” said Gregory K. Bovino, chief patrol agent for the El Centro Sector. “It's hardly to bear to think about the heinous crimes awaiting children who aren't with their parents. Over the past few years, the border environment has been full of this kind of activity. But the focus changes and awaits smugglers who will hurt children.”
Both adults were charged under 8USC §1324, which prohibits smuggling and transporting immigrants to the United States.
Fox News Digital reached out to CBP's El Centro sector.
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On January 30th, 2019, a field of lettuce in front of a border fence near the port of San Luis Rio, Mexico, near the port of San Luis, Arizona. (Getty Images)
Last month, two Mexican nationals were convicted of what was called “the deadliest human smuggling event in American history.”
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Sixty-seven illegal immigrants, including children, were trapped inside. The incident killed 53 people.
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US Border Patrol agents sit on a truck on the road outside the farm gate near Carrizzo Springs, Texas. (Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In the beginning of March, Eduardo Domingo Rino Zimatul and Guatemalan citizen Cristobal Mezia Charge were arrested by federal agents and accused of running one of the nation's largest human smuggling rings.
The pair allegedly smuggled 20,000 illegal immigrants into the United States from 2019 until their arrest.
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