Girl Hides Nearly 2 Days in Seized Van

Twelve-year-old Floriberta Jimenez Torres knew she had to stay quiet inside the minivan’s secret spot if she wanted to make it into the United States and see her mom and dad.

So she didn’t utter a word, even after inspectors seized the Ford Aerostar at the Mexican border. For almost two days, without food or water, she remained still and silent in the hidden compartment of the van parked outdoors. Federal workers inspecting the vehicle didn’t detect her.

Finally, on Monday morning, about 42 hours after she had crawled into the side panel of the minivan in Tijuana, Floriberta climbed out and sat quietly in the front seat. When workers discovered her, she asked for water. They rushed her to a hospital, where doctors determined that she was in good condition.

“It’s incredible she is still alive,” said Alberto Lozano, a spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in San Diego.

An American citizen, Michael James Murphy, was charged in federal court with attempting to smuggle Floriberta and a 34-year-old woman, whom inspectors found in another hidden compartment, into the U.S. Floriberta, who is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, was granted special permission to stay in the U.S. so she can testify against Murphy.

Murphy was trying to enter the country at San Ysidro about 8:30 p.m. Saturday when an inspector noticed that he appeared nervous and that he was not the registered owner of the car, according to the criminal complaint filed against him.

Inspectors discovered the woman, Gabina Morales-Mendez, concealed in the dashboard. Also from Oaxaca, but no relation to Floriberta, she told authorities that she had been trying to get to Bakersfield.

Murphy said that in exchange for a promised $300, he had agreed to drive the car into the country and deliver it to a parking lot off Interstate 805, the complaint said. He told the inspector that he thought the vehicle might be stolen or have drugs or weapons but that he had not asked the Tijuana men who hired him.

Murphy was taken into custody, and the Aerostar was taken to a federal storage facility in San Diego County. It wasn’t until 11 a.m. on Monday, after a hot weekend, that an employee saw Floriberta sitting in the vehicle. She told authorities that she had been living with relatives in Tijuana for the past year and that her father had arranged for her to be smuggled into the U.S. On Saturday afternoon, she said, two men in Tijuana placed her inside the driver’s side panel of the car, according to the criminal complaint. She said her father was supposed to pay smugglers once she got to the U.S.

She told consular officials she didn’t come out because she was scared and didn’t want to be discovered.

On Tuesday, she was declared a material witness in the case and released into the custody of her father, who is a legal resident of the United States and lives in San Diego County.

Legal residents may apply to bring their children into the country, but because of immigration caps the wait can reach several years.

The case is an example of how smugglers increasingly are risking immigrants’ lives in their attempts to bring them across the border, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection. Smugglers have hidden people in converted gas tanks, next to engines and within wheel wells. There also have been numerous deadly cases of smugglers crowding people in hot trailers and car trunks.

“The methods they use are increasingly sophisticated and dangerous,” Mack said. “They often place migrants in dangerous, specially outfitted compartments.”

Activists on both sides of the border warn would-be immigrants about the risks of crossing, whether they try to traverse the mountains east of San Diego or hide in car compartments.

Floriberta’s ability to hide for nearly two days inside a seized minivan also raises questions about how thoroughly vehicles are inspected after being seized. In July, a San Diego County man was charged with drug possession after Tijuana police found 33 pounds of marijuana hidden in a Volkswagen Passat that he bought at a U.S. government auction. Charges are still pending.

The Bureau of Customs and Border Protection has decided to postpone auctioning vehicles seized at ports of entry until they are reexamined at federal storage facilities, according to a statement issued by the bureau Tuesday. The examinations are expected to be completed by Friday, and the auctions will take place after that.