Felicitas Gurrola, An Octogenarian, To Plead Guilty To Migrant Smuggling

[The Northerner]

SAN DIEGO — Felicitas Gurrola defies the image of today's typical Mexican smuggler. At 84, she directed a female-dominated ring that led 80 people a month to the Los Angeles area – and she managed to hang on to a family-run smuggling business for more than 40 years when most mom-and-pop rings were driven out by increasingly violent men who lead illegal immigrants on perilous routes.

The octogenarian has agreed to plead guilty on Friday to charges that she led a ring of smugglers who guided migrants to the United States illegally with imposter documents, her attorney said. The route she used from Tijuana, Mexico, to San Diego is the busiest U.S. border crossing. Guides then took the illegal migrants to the Los Angeles area.

When she began, Gurrola and her family were typical of other smugglers. But mom-and-pop organizations have faded away over the last decade as border security has increased and larger, more violent organizations have muscled smaller competitors aside.

Despite all that, Gurrola wasn't deterred, as outlined in an affidavit by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Migrants who met her at Tijuana's Suites Royal Hotel were given immigration documents belonging to others and told to memorize the information, according to the ICE affidavit. Officials say they were taken to a beauty salon to look more like the photos on the documents.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/19/octogenarian-plead-guilty-migrant-smuggling_n_931166.html