A mother who paid a stranger to smuggle her infant son into the U.S. was finally reunited with her baby after the child spent weeks in protective custody.
It all started back in March when the mother gave her 10-month-old son to a "coyote," a man she paid to smuggle her son into the U.S. and deliver the baby to its mother's uncle in Los Angeles. The mother was to cross the border on her own and reunite with her child soon after.
For the man and the child, their trip took a different turn.
“I’m very happy," the mother said over the phone. “I thought I was never to be reunited with him ever again."
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Border Patrol Agents found her 10-month-old son in the backseat of a man's car at the San Clemente checkpoint.
“The agent had concluded that the person carrying the baby was not his father,” said Carlos Gonzales Gutierrez with the Mexican Consulate.
Border Patrol detained the driver and placed the baby under protective custody.
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“The mother was in Mexico. We had to contact Child Welfare Services (CPS) to recover the baby in order to give it back to her mother," Gonzalez said.
However, CPS disputed their claim. Gonzalez said CPS had placed the baby with foster parents and wanted to keep the child in the U.S.
“They argued in front of the judge that she was a bad mother because why else would she allow for someone, a third person to bring the baby to the United States," Gonzalez said.
Gonzales said they had to convince the judge the child belonged to the mother.
“We had to go in front of a judge in order to convince a judge, that it was the baby’s mother, the most important person to have in custody of this baby," Gonzalez said.
As part of the reunification process, the Mexican Consulate requested a special permit from the U.S. Border Patrol to allow the mother to cross the border for humanitarian reasons.
“Fortunately, in the end, the judge realized that the facts as proven by the letters we sent to the judge and presented to the judge were not in doubt. She was the mother, and therefore she deserved to have custody of her son," Gonzalez said.
The mother told NBC 7 she regretted her decision of trusting a complete stranger with her child.
“I cried a lot because I didn’t know where my baby was, I didn’t know where to go, I didn’t know what to do in that moment," the mother said.