Border Patrol on Wednesday arrested a woman in Rio Grande City who they accuse of harboring 15 people who entered the country illegally.
The suspect, however, claims she no longer lives at the apartment and had just returned to pick up some clothes, and noticed there were people inside her apartment.
But Border Patrol says that doesn’t match up with videos found on her phone where she is asking the people their names and nationalities.
Now, Jannette Trevino, a U.S. citizen born in 1990, is charged with harboring people who are in the country illegally.
Border Patrol had previously received information on May 10 that her apartment may be used for harboring people.
On Wednesday, Border Patrol and the Texas Department of Public Safety went to the apartment and made contact with Trevino through an open rear window and asked her to go to the front door, according to a complaint.
“Trevino admitted to agents she was renting the apartment and provided agents consent to search her apartment,” the complaint stated.
That’s when Border Patrol says they found 15 people in the country illegally there.
During an interview, she told agents that she had lived at the apartment since January but had moved out three weeks ago, though the apartment was still leased under her name, according to the complaint.
“Trevino stated she returned to the apartment to recover clothing she had left at the apartment. While at the apartment, she noticed law enforcement approaching the apartment and opened the front door. Trevino added that she told law enforcement that there were people inside her apartment. Trevino claimed the people found in her apartment belonged to her neighbor,” the complaint stated.
However, an interview with a material witness, a man from Guatemala, conflicts with her statement.
He told Border Patrol that after crossing the Rio Grande on a raft on May 17 he was transported to the Rio Grande City apartment where a woman let him in.
“(He) added that the female recorded him as she asked him his name and nationality, then told him which room to enter,” the complaint stated.
Border Patrol says Trevino allowed them to search her cellphone, where they found videos of her asking the people in the country illegally their name and nationality.
She is temporarily being held without bond pending probable cause and detention hearings that are scheduled for next week, records show.
