HSI El Paso rescues 1-year-old girl from smugglers
EL PASO, Texas – Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents, working jointly with U.S. Border Patrol (USBP) agents, rescued a 1-year-old girl after the toddler was separated from the mother by human smugglers.
“Human smugglers are driven by greed,” said Frank B. Burrola, special agent in charge of HSI El Paso. “HSI remains steadfast in our commitment to work closely with our partners to vigorously pursue human smuggling networks that exploit and endanger people who entrust them with their lives.”
On Friday, USBP agents assigned to the Santa Teresa, New Mexico, station encountered a migrant family from Mexico – a 37-year-old mother and her 11-year-old son – near McNutt and Anapra roads. The family was taken to the El Paso Sector Central Processing Center for family verification and processing.
During processing, the mother stated that her 1-year-old daughter was taken from her by human smugglers in Mexico. Border Patrol agents investigated and discovered that the toddler was scheduled to travel to Dallas by bus on Saturday.
Border Patrol agents contacted HSI special agents, who located the child and the smuggler before they departed El Paso by bus. The child was reunited with her mother. The alleged smuggler, Rubye Ramos, 23, was arrested for transporting an undocumented noncitizen.
“This is one more example of the callous and ruthless tactics used by transnational criminal organizations that often use the most vulnerable migrants – children – as a commodity by forcibly taking them away from their families to continue the exploitation for financial gain. This weekend a tragedy was prevented due to the invaluable partnership between Border Patrol agents and special agents from HSI,” said El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria I. Chavez. “I am extremely proud of the intelligence gathering and investigative work by all agents involved in this case that brought an innocent child to safety.”
The is an HSI El Paso-led investigation.
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 special agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.
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