An El Paso woman has pleaded guilty to smuggling foreign children into the U.S. as part of a larger criminal organization.
Dianne Guadian pleaded guilty to four out of five counts of “aiding and abetting bringing of aliens without authorization for profit.” Prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas brought charges against her and other accomplices involved in the smuggling organization.
These accomplices included Susana Guadian, Daniel Guadian, and Manuel Valenzuela.
According to court documents, Border Patrol agents first interrupted the scheme in August 2024 after stopping a driver at the Ysleta Border Patrol Checkpoint. The agents discovered that the driver, who is listed as a co-conspirator in court documents, was attempting to smuggle a 13-year-old using documents belonging to his own child.
During the stop, agents learned from the driver that he had “smuggled alien children into the United States from Mexico on three occasions” and was paid for each minor smuggled.
Agents also learned that the driver transported the child into the U.S. after picking them up from Susana Guadian in Mexico. Upon arriving in El Paso, Dianne Guadian met the driver at a designated location and took over the transport of the smuggled child.
A second incident occurred in October 2024 at the Bridge of America Port of Entry, where two other accomplices in the scheme were traveling with four children ages 2, 5, 9, and 12.
Both accomplices presented Texas I.D. cards and State of Texas birth certificates for the children.
After questioning, agents discovered that the co-conspirators had picked up three of the four children in the vehicle from Susana Guadian and were on their way to deliver them to Manuel Valenzuela in El Paso.
One of the accomplices was the true parent to the fourth child.
Similar to the August stop by Border Patrol, agents discovered that the birth certificates used for the three children being smuggled belonged to the accomplices’ children.
The co-conspirators were to contact Dianne Guadian to coordinate a meetup with Valenzuela.
Agents also discovered THC gummy candy that Susana Guadian gave the three children being smuggled to sedate them. She had also coached them on what name to use while crossing the border.
Authorities called emergency services and two of the children were hospitalized for THC poisoning.
“This defendant and her co-conspirators engaged in serious and dangerous conduct, which included giving THC-laced gummies to children to sedate them while smuggling them from Mexico into the United States, all in order to make money,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“The smuggling of unaccompanied children can expose them to the additional crimes and societal ills of human trafficking and sexual assault. This robs them of their innocence and youth, and it must be stopped.”
The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that under the open border policies during the Biden administration nearly 540,000 unaccompanied alien children were apprehended after crossing illegally into the U.S. Approximately 448,000 of these children were released to sponsors.
Reports vary on how many children became unaccounted for by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, with one investigation estimating 233,000 whose whereabouts were unknown, while former senior Health and Human Services appointee John Fabbricatore said HHS “did not know the whereabouts of 291,000 children it had released from custody.”
Fabbricatore assisted the Trump administration in finding 140,000 of these children and held a discussion with the Heritage Foundation in June discussing the search to find these missing children.
Finding these children is reportedly difficult not only because of the Biden administration’s “lack of monitoring,” but also because of the fraud and misrepresentation surrounding the sponsorship of unaccompanied alien children.
CIS highlighted that the effort to locate the remainder of these missing children is complicated “by the fact that over 300,000 of the minors who crossed the border illegally have now aged out of minor status, and are likely living on their own.”
Dianne Guadian is facing a minimum sentence of five years, with a maximum of 15 years, in prison. A sentencing date has not yet been set.
Manuel Valenzuela was sentenced to five years in prison earlier this month after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to transport aliens, three counts of bringing aliens without authorization for financial gain, and one count of aiding and abetting.
