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Two women sentenced for attempting to smuggle 7-year-old Mexican boy into Texas

By
Published  February 11, 2025 1:14pm CST
Crime and Public Safety
FOX 26 Houston

View the frontier between Nueva Laredo, Mexico (L) and Laredo, Texas, (R) concertina wire can be seen installed all the way up to the US-Mexico border on this busy international bridge on November 17, 2018. - The soldiers are some of the thousands of

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The Brief

    • Two women were sentenced to three years each in prison for attempting to smuggle a 7-year-old boy from Mexico.
    • The sisters told authorities they were paid $3,000 to take the boy from Mexico to San Antonio.
    • Prosecutors said the women tried to tell authorities at the border that the boy was their 15-year-old brother.

LAREDO, Texas - Two women will spend the next three years in federal prison for attempting to bring a 7-year-old Mexican child into the United States.

What we know:

Naidelyn Yuliana Vielma Jimenez, 22, from Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, and Bianca Jackeline Vielma Jimenez, 23, Laredo, pleaded guilty Sept. 17 and Oct. 17, 2024, respectively.

Prosecutors said the two sisters admitted they made an agreement to smuggle the boy from Mexico and take him to San Antonio for $3,000.

The sisters were each sentenced to 36 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.

What they're saying:

"Prior open border policies have inflicted an incalculable human toll, much of which has unfortunately fallen upon innocent children," said U.S. Attorney Nicholas J. Ganjei. "The Department of Justice, and, in particular, the Southern District of Texas, will do whatever it takes to destroy the market for the trafficking and smuggling of children. For those who profit off this misery, you will be found and prosecuted."

The backstory:

The sisters arrived at the Juarez-Lincoln International Bridge at Laredo on July 9, 2024, with their 16-year-old sister and the 7-year-old boy, prosecutors said. The women told authorities that they were one family and that the boy was their 15-year-old brother.

They showed authorities a video and a photograph that allegedly showed the boy with their family and showed them copies of their 15-year-old brother's documents in an attempt to convince authorities the boy was their brother, prosecutors said.

The sisters later admitted to the smuggling plot.

What we don't know:

A date for the women to report to prison has not been set. They were permitted to remain on bond and voluntarily surrender once a prison assignment is decided.

The Source: Information in this article comes from the Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney's Office.

Crime and Public SafetyImmigrationTexas