Three Guatemalans were accused in the United States of using Guatemalan identity documents and consular records to obtain custody of at least 12 unaccompanied migrant minors, the Department of Justice reported this Thursday, June 11, according to US media.
The accusation, filed in Ohio, accuses Maritza Cahuec Coc and two other Guatemalans of having participated in a scheme through which sponsorship applications were submitted with allegedly false information to obtain the delivery of minors who had crossed the southern border of the United States.
A publication of cnn details that unaccompanied migrant minors detained by border authorities become under the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for their care until they are handed over to a sponsor, such as a parent or a family member living in the United States.
According to prosecutors, Coc used birth certificates and Guatemalan consular identification cards belonging to other people to support sponsorship applications and convince authorities that he had family ties to the minors.
“Maritza submitted sponsorship applications using other people’s identities and falsely claiming that they were children of close relatives in order to obtain custody of them,” said A. Tysen Duva, assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“This was a business. The payments were deposited in the bank accounts of her and her accomplices,” he added.
The accusation also maintains that Coc arrived in the United States in 2018 and that between the end of 2020 and 2023 he received payments for helping to transport 12 migrant minors to the country by presenting allegedly false documentation.
US authorities affirm that some of the minors have already reached the age of majority.
In addition, the prosecution accuses the Guatemalan woman of facilitating alleged migrant smuggling operations by allowing undocumented people to stay in a home she rented.
According to the Department of Justice, Coc allegedly acted together with a brother and another defendant, who also face charges in the case.
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