Texas State Troopers Apprehend Man Who Allegedly Smuggled 5-Year-Old Girl Into U.S.

Troopers with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) apprehended a man who allegedly helped smuggle a 5-year-old girl across the Rio Grande River and into the United States near Del Rio on Friday.

The Texas DPS said that one trooper stopped a pickup truck after learning that a man had been seen by border surveillance technology taking the young child across the border and into the United States.

Texas DPS Spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez stated that the smuggler transported the young girl into the vehicle of a different human smuggler who he was collaborating with before being driven to a hotel.

Texas DPS monitored the vehicle before conducting a traffic stop, where the law enforcement agents found the girl and arrested the alleged smuggler, Roman Ibarra Rojo, who was charged with smuggling a person younger than 18 years old. Rojo had previously been arrested for human smuggling in 2022, Olivarez stated.

Texas DPS also stated that Rojo admitted that he had agreed to smuggle the girl across the border in exchange for $1,000.

Also present was the mother of the young girl, Dolores Lopez, who Texas DPS says is originally from Mexico and is a temporary resident of North Carolina. Lopez, Texas DPS says, confessed to finding and hiring a smuggling organization to bring her daughter to the United States in exchange for $8,000.

Texas DPS referred Lopez and her daughter to Border Patrol and recommended that the mother be charged with endangering her child. The district attorney will now have the option to pursue charges against Lopez.

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The case comes as the United States has endured an unprecedented illegal immigration crisis under the Biden-Harris administration, with over 10 million people crossing the border in less than four years.

Immigration was one of the top issues in the presidential election, and President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to secure the southern border and initiate the largest mass deportation effort in American history.