Texas Woman Guilty of Transporting Illegal Aliens Through Mississippi
From: US Attorney News Release 12/5/11 GCNJackson, Miss. - Sheren Nguyen, 48, of Houston, Texas, was found guilty in U.S. District Court today of transporting illegal aliens through Mississippi for profit, announced U.S. Attorney John Dowdy and Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”). The trial was held before U.S. District Judge Henry T. Wingate in Jackson, Mississippi. Nguyen will be sentenced on February 24, 2012.
On December 15, 2010, a vehicle driven by Nguyen on Interstate-55 North in Pike County, Mississippi, was stopped by a Pike County Sheriff’s Office deputy for swerving. After determining that the nine passengers in the vehicle had no identification documents and did not speak English, coupled with suspicious statements given by Nguyen, Nguyen was arrested for careless driving and no insurance. She and the passengers were taken to the Pike County jail. The Office of Homeland Security Investigations was later contacted and it was determined that the nine passengers were illegal aliens and Nguyen was arrested for transporting illegal aliens. It was also determined that Nguyen had been previously detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in August 2009 for attempting to transport illegal aliens. Upon interviewing the illegal aliens, HSI discovered that Nguyen knew the aliens were illegal or recklessly disregarded that fact, as the illegal aliens had informed her of their status during the trip. Further, a review of Nguyen’s cell phone records revealed that she had made phone calls to various family members of the illegal aliens to arrange for their delivery and her payment, as she was transporting them to various destinations along the East Coast and would be paid upon their delivery to their destinations.
"Recruiting, harboring and transporting illegal aliens are very serious crimes that we will simply not tolerate" said Raymond R. Parmer, Jr., Special Agent in Charge of HSI in New Orleans."HSI devotes significant resources to identify and prosecute violators in a determined effort to shut down vulnerabilities to our immigration system such as transporting illegal aliens for profit.
”U.S. Attorney Dowdy praised the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security HSI, for its diligent work in the investigation of this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Mike Hurst and Patrick Lemon were the prosecutors in charge of the case.