EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – A woman who led authorities on a high-speed vehicle chase, stopped and told migrants to run along an interstate highway where one of them was killed, will spend the next 10 years of her life in a federal prison.
U.S. Chief District Judge Kenneth J. Gonzales on Thursday sentenced Georgina Ramirez, 44, after she pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens and high-speed flight from an immigration checkpoint in connection with the Sept. 20, 2023, incident.
On that day, Ramirez drove several migrants “stashed” in her Anthony, New Mexico, residence toward Deming, New Mexico, expecting they would pay her for getting them past an immigration checkpoint on Intestate 10 West. Court documents show a smuggling “scout” working with Ramirez told her Border Patrol agents at the checkpoint were not inspecting vehicles.
Shortly after midnight, Ramirez reached the checkpoint in her silver Nissan Pathfinder but found that agents were on duty and questioning drivers. She lowered her window and presented her driver’s license, but declined to lower the rear passenger windows, telling agents the button did not work.
Court records show Border Patrol agents noticed additional passengers and were about to refer Ramirez to a secondary inspection area when the woman floored the gas pedal and fled the checkpoint.
The Pathfinder reached speeds between 90 and 110 miles per hour on I-10 West, and at one point the driver turned off the headlights to elude pursuing Border Patrol units.
Records show Ramirez stopped the Pathfinder 6 miles west of the checkpoint. “I pulled onto the median and told everyone to run. We all fled on foot. While fleeing, one of the aliens I was transporting was struck by an oncoming vehicle and was killed,” Ramirez said in her plea agreement.”
Agents took Ramirez and four passengers into custody shortly after the fifth passenger was hit by a tractor-trailer, court records show.
Upon her release from prison, Ramirez will be subject to three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico said in a statement.
The U.S. Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations presented the findings; Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kirk Williams and Randy Castellano prosecuted the case.
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