A South African woman whose arrest heightened fears that terrorists were slipping across the United States-Mexico border has been deported.
Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed (49) was turned over to authorities in South Africa on Tuesday, Immigration and customs enforcement officials said. She is barred from returning to the United States for 10 years.
Ahmed was convicted of illegal entry into the United States, making false statements to federal authorities and misuse of an altered South African passport.
She was sentenced on December 7 to the time she was held on the charges, and was ordered deported.
Ahmed was arrested on July 19 by border patrol agents at the McAllen, Texas, airport as she tried to board a flight to Houston that was continuing to New York City. Ahmed told agents she had a valid visa, but records showed she did not.
Three pages were missing from her passport, and she had a bag of wet clothing. She later told officials she swam across the Rio Grande from Mexico earlier that day. She was carrying $6 300, flight itineraries, a camera and a cellphone, officials said.
Though a border patrol agent’s check of databases showed Ahmed was on a government watch list, the US attorney’s office continually denied it.
A senior law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators had tried to determine whether Ahmed had ties to terrorist groups. She never faced any terrorism charges. – Sapa-AP