Houston woman charged in baby smuggling case (KGBT-TX)

Houston woman charged in baby smuggling case
Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 2:18 p.m.

A Houston woman is facing federal immigrant smuggling charges after she tried to pass a 7-month-old boy off as her own.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers arrested Diana Isabel Esquivel on Sunday.

Court records show that the 26-year-old American woman rode up to the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge in a taxi with a 7-month-old boy.

Esquivel claimed the child was hers and showed a birth certificate from Houston as proof but a secondary inspection revealed otherwise.

Customs officers learned that the birth certificate belonged to Esquivel's own child but that baby with her belonged to an undocumented immigrant.

Esquivel told officers she agreed to bring the baby across as a favor to the boy's mother.

Court records show that Esquivel received $100 for expenses while the baby boy was turned over to the custody of the Mexican Consulate in McAllen.

Esquivel appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter E. Ormsby on Monday where she received a $25,000 unsecured bond.