Photographer Who Claims She Was Taking Nature Photos Charged With Migrant Smuggling
A photographer, who told border agents that she was shooting nature pictures near the U.S.-Mexico border, has been arrested for smuggling migrants.
Chelsea Naida Ruiz, who claims to be a nature photographer, says she drove her SUV to southern New Mexico earlier this month to take pictures of the local landscape.
However, Ruiz, who is a U.S. citizen, is now facing smuggling charges after border agents stopped her car and found four migrants in the back of her SUV.
According to a report in San Antonio Express-News, an agent at the Lordsburg Border Patrol Station received a call at around 1 P.M. on January 11 from a resident who reported seeing possible migrants running across New Mexico State Road 338.
The highway runs north and south near the border, and route federal officials describe it as a common corridor for smuggling activity.
Nearly an hour after receiving the call, the agent spotted a black GMC Terrain with Indiana license plates, which matched the description of a car suspected to be involved in human smuggling. The car then began traveling on Interstate 10 west toward Phoenix, another frequent route used by smugglers.
San Antonio Express-News reports that two U.S. border agents pulled over the car. They found Ruiz in the driver’s seat and the photographer’s husband Jeremiah Earl Goins, who is also a U.S. citizen, in the passenger seat.
The agents also discovered four people dressed in camouflage, identified as migrants, lying down in the back seat and cargo areas of the car.
According to court documents seen by Border Report, Ruiz told agents that Goins asked her to drive him to Animas, New Mexico that day so that he could do a favor for his friend.
Ruiz told border authorities that she is a photographer who sells nature photos as commercial wallpapers for mobile devices. She says she agreed to drive her husband so she could take pictures of the South New Mexico landscape afterward.
Ruiz says Goins asked her to stop the car on the side of the road and four people she didn’t know got in. Ruiz said she didn’t ask any questions because she trusted Goins’ decision to pick up the individuals and give them a ride to Tucson, Arizona.
Goins allegedly told agents that he simply saw four people in need of assistance and gave them a ride. He said he was not in the habit of asking people for identification or immigration status.
However, border agents were unconvinced by their accounts, and Ruiz and Goins were charged with conspiracy to transport illegal migrants. The pair appeared in federal court in Las Cruces, New Mexico last week.
According to Border Report, court records show that the four passengers admitted to entering the U.S. unlawfully from Mexico. One migrant shared that they had paid smugglers to guide them across the border, trekked for five days through the wilderness, and were instructed to lie low once inside the SUV.
During a search of Ruiz’s and Goin’s vehicle and possessions, border agents also allegedly found two loaded firearms.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
