Dallas woman held for bringing boy, 14, into US illegally

A 27-year-old Dallas woman is in federal custody on charges she tried to smuggle a 14-year-old boy into the U.S. from Mexico by using an illegal Georgia birth certificate.

Joanna Gamez-Aguillon was arrested last week at the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge in the Rio Grande Valley. Border officers say they became suspicious when the teenagerappeared to be nervous and couldn’t answer basic questions.

The Brownsville Herald reports Gamez-Aguillon acknowledged to authorities that she knew the boy didn’t have legal status to enter the U.S., that the child’s mother in Savannah, Georgia, had bought the illegal birth certificate for $750 and was to pay her $4,250 to bring the boy into the country.

Court documents show Gamez-Aguillon also had her five U.S.-born children with her when she was questioned at the border.