Woman gets 18 mos. for trying to smuggle Mexican girl into U.S.

ARIZONA DAILY STAR

A U.S. citizen living in Nogales, Sonora, was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison after she tried to a smuggle 6-year-old Mexican girl into the United States.

Elvira Belen Madrid, 22, pleaded guilty Nov. 30 to conspiracy to transport an illegal entrant for profit, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Madrid tried to use her own daughter's Arizona birth certificate to get the girl into the United States, the release says.

An inspector became suspicious because girl should have been 3 years old, according to the birth certificate, but she appeared much older, according to the release. The girl also told the inspector she had a different name from the one on the birth certificate.

The girl turned out to be a Mexican citizen without authorization to be in the United States. Madrid admitted that though she didn't know the girl, she was going to receive $200 for smuggling her into the country, the release says.

She was going to leave the girl with two people she knew only by their first names.