Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas allege that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contractors used charter buses to move large groups of illegal immigrants north. The defendants allegedly claimed to be transporting unaccompanied minors at the request of her company.
U.S. Border Patrol agents arrested 35-year-old Nancy Berenice Fernandez Luna last week for attempted smuggling, court records show. Luna was on the bus with 39 adult illegal immigrants and Jose Torres Ayala, who is also charged with human smuggling. First up, Dave Hendricks. reported case For CBS4.
During a meeting with agents, Fernandez-Luna reportedly provided identification from her employer (an ICE contractor) and identified herself as an MVM Inc. employee. The company has contracts with ICE and the Office of Refugee Resettlement. Court documents show she told deputies the bus was carrying a group of unaccompanied minors who tested positive for COVID-19.
Investigators told her to wait until they contacted a local processing center to verify the information, and Fernandez and Torres allegedly closed the bus door and attempted to flee. Officials immediately stopped the bus and had the driver return to the secondary inspection area. There, authorities learned that the migrants were not unaccompanied minors with status, but adult illegal immigrants who had been removed by a group of human smugglers.
Border Patrol agents arrested Fernandez, Torres, and 39 other adult migrants on the bus. Torres-Ayala told authorities she was paid $1,800 for the trip.
According to CBS4at a hearing Wednesday in McAllen, U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia Medrano set Fernandez's bail at $50,000 and requires him to be subject to GPS monitoring if he is able to post bail. I ordered that it must be done.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist at Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Breitbart, Texas Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Breitbart's senior management team. you can follow him Twitter And even more facebook. He can be contacted at: iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Breitbart, Texas Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and Breitbart's senior management team. please follow him Twitter and facebook. He can be contacted at: bdarby@breitbart.com.
