Ricardo Chavira Chicano

During my time as a San Diego-based reporter I heard rumors of Mexican babies who were trafficked and sold in the U.S. to American couples. The city’s federal district attorney was investigating the illicit trade, and he offered to help me report on the alleged crimes. Here is an excerpt from my book that describes what I learned.

I was given the names and contact information of six Mexican women who had given away their newborn children. The six women I contacted agreed to be interviewed. They were young, poor and unmarried. Most had responded to Tijuana newspaper ads that said an American couple wanted to adopt a baby. Those who responded to the ads believed they were too poor to care for their newborns. Some also lived far from their families, who might have provided support. Still, others did not want relatives to know they had become pregnant out of wedlock. None of the women thought they were selling their babies but rather relieving themselves of an unbearable burden. Abortions were illegal, dangerous, and expensive in Mexico.

When expectant mothers called the number listed in the ads, a woman would answer in Spanish and tell them she represented the adoptive parents. She would ask personal questions about the women’s age, occupation, and address.

If all seemed in order, the women would meet with the purported representative in Tijuana or other Baja California locations. The baby broker would size up the mothers-to-be, looking for indications that the women were in poor health or prostitutes, and appeared sincere about going through with the transaction.

In exchange for agreeing to give up their babies for adoption, the women were told that prenatal care and delivery costs would be covered. The representatives, always young women, said the mothers would also receive a few hundred dollars as compensation. Shortly after the babies were born, the representatives, Mexican women who were US citizens, would pay the mothers and take the infants to San Marcos, a city in northern San Diego County.

At that time, Americans who crossed into Mexican border cities were not required to show a passport when entering the United States. Border agents simply talked to those who presented themselves at ports of entry and determined whether the persons most likely were Americans or legal residents. Thus, the women couriers would tell agents they were citizens, as were the infants. They were waved through.

According to the district attorney, San Marcos resident, and tax preparer Dora Díaz Green was head of the illegal operation. A few times, Díaz and an alleged associate, Heather Springer, smuggled expectant mothers from Tijuana into San Diego.

One of the women who surrendered their babies was an undocumented immigrant, twenty-year-old Patricia Alvarez of Carlsbad in northern San Diego County. She told me her father, Silvino, approached Díaz, who had helped him with a separate immigration matter. He reportedly sought advice from Díaz because he and his daughter did not have enough money to cover prenatal and birth expenses.

According to Alvarez, Díaz offered to take custody of the infant in exchange for her covering their costs. Alvarez and her father agreed, and after giving birth to her daughter, Adriana, Díaz took the baby. A few months later, Alvarez said she regretted her decision and sought Adriana’s return. Also, Silvino was angry because Díaz had failed to cover Adriana’s medical costs.

Finally, Díaz took Alvarez to the Vista home of Thomas and Juanita McMillan. Díaz showed Alvarez an infant girl there and told her she was Adriana.

“I could tell it was not Adriana, and I never told Mrs. Díaz to give Adriana away,” Alvarez said. “She was supposed to keep her.”

Díaz insisted it was Adriana and that it was too late to take her away from the McMillans because they and the baby had bonded.

The excerpt ends here, so I will summarize what happened next. San Diego authorities seized the infant and returned her to Adriana. Diaz then gave the McMillians another baby girl in exchange for $400, the couple told me.

This new infant was not taken from the couple. Amazingly, no one was charged with a crime.