EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Two American siblings face migrant smuggling charges after authorities allegedly caught them picking up unauthorized migrants in an Indian reservation.
But the smuggler who brought the migrants over from Mexico on a dirt bike that crisscrossed a remote desert portion of the international boundary remains at large. He is presumed to have returned to Mexico, for now.
According to documents filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona, border agents near the city of Why received a call from a camera operator who witnessed the dirt bike enter the United States east of the busy Lukeville-Sonoyta migrant smuggling corridor.
The off-road motorcycle sharply turned toward the Tohono O’odham Indian reservation and kept going as fast as the terrain allowed. The operator simultaneously spotted, through another camera, a blue Dodge Durango entering the village of Ali Chuk and starting to drive around.
The operator apparently lost sight of the dirt bike in the brush, but minutes later, two individuals on foot approached the blue Durango and got in. Court records show border agents tracked the vehicle until it reached State Route 86 and signaled the driver to stop.
The agents approached Jennie Grace Clark Karels and determined that she and her passenger, David Rene Orozco, were U.S. citizens born in 2005 and 2003, respectively. They also allegedly observed two men hiding in the back of the SUV. The four occupants of the Durango were taken to a Border Patrol station and questioned.
Documents: Siblings changed their story
Court records show Karels told investigators she left Phoenix with her brother, and they stopped at Ali Chuk because they wanted to “travel to a place they had never seen before.” Asked about the other two passengers, Karels allegedly said six vehicles surrounded the Durango in Ali Chuk and threatened her if they did not transport the migrants north.
Orozco allegedly told investigators he had smoked marijuana during the trip, fell asleep, and woke up only after the two migrants got into the vehicle.
The migrants told investigators a much different story. They said they paid a smuggling organization in Mexico between $8,500 and $12,000 to be brought across the border and then transported to the interior of the United States. Angel Luna Lopez and Fernando Sebastian Gonzalez said the smugglers summoned a “guide” to take them across the border; he drove a dirt bike, accommodated them in the narrow seat, and took them on a ride across the international boundary.
Gonzalez said the guide stopped the motorbike in a secluded place, received a call from the smugglers, and told the migrants that a blue truck would pick them up.
Lopez allegedly told investigators that once they approached the truck, the female driver “signaled them to get in” and instructed them to lower their head during the ride.
Confronted with additional facts, investigators allege that the American siblings changed their story.
Orozco stated he saw an advertisement on social media for drivers to take people from Ali Chuk to Phoenix for $1,000. He said he received a “pin” on his cell phone with the location for the “pick up.”
Karels concurred about the fee and the pick-up location, court records show.
The two faced an initial hearing Monday in federal court in Tucson. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 22.
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