Immigration authorities deported a Mexican mom who tried to give her baby away to pay a debt to smugglers during Biden’s open-border reign, investigators said.
Homeland Security Investigations in St. Louis launched a probe that led to the removal of Maria Lidia Valle-Hernandez, a 28-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico, last month.
We deported a Mexican illegal alien May 11 after an ICE HSI St. Louis probe found that she tried to fraudulently give her newborn baby to another illegal alien because of a debt to smugglers.
Maria Lidia Valle-Hernandez, 28, used a false name to register at St. Joseph’s hospital… pic.twitter.com/Oknu2gJPqC
— SSgt Texkota (@texkota) June 15, 2026
HSI investigators allege she left her newborn baby at the hospital back in 2024 and tried to allow another woman to claim the child to settle a debt with human smugglers.
Valle-Hernandez also has a history with U.S. Border Patrol. She reportedly tried to illegally enter the country multiple times during the Biden administration.
Border Patrol agents caught Valle-Hernandez at the border near Santa Teresa, New Mexico, five different times in August 2022.
On one occasion, she was apprehended twice on the same day. She was returned to Mexico each time, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE agents removed her again on May 11 following an immigration court order. Police in Chesterfield, Missouri, arrested Valle-Hernandez for fourth-degree domestic assault on April 22.
HSI officials did not detail what happened to Valle-Hernandez between the time she reportedly tried to give her baby away in January 2024 and her arrest in April. The following day, ICE St. Louis lodged an immigration detainer and she was taken into ICE custody.
HSI shared details of her removal on social media and said Valle-Hernandez used a false name to register at St. Joseph’s hospital in Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, before giving birth to a child in January 2024.
After she delivered the baby, she devised a plan to allow another woman, who was also an illegal immigrant, to falsely claim be the infant’s biological mother.
Investigators said Valle-Hernandez was discharged from the hospital and gave her hospital identification wristband to the other woman, who then presented herself as the mother to hospital staff.
“Human trafficking and smuggling exist everywhere, even in quiet, low-crime communities such as Lake Saint Louis, Missouri,” said Homeland Security Investigations St. Louis Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gregory Paris.
Authorities were tipped off to the scheme after a concerned individual reported the incident to the Lake Saint Louis Police Department. Local police contacted the hospital, the Missouri Children’s Division and HSI St. Louis.
The newborn was taken into protective custody by Missouri Children’s Division.
“This investigation is a great example of HSI and local police working together to disrupt the smuggling and trafficking networks that profit off the vulnerable and use false promises to create a magnet for continued smuggling,” Paris said.
Authorities determined Valle-Hernandez was the baby’s birth mother and gave her multiple chances to admit she was the child’s mother, investigators said.
Valle-Hernandez maintained her false claims, saying the baby wasn’t hers, until HSI special agents confirmed her identity through fingerprint records.
She eventually told investigators she lied due to financial hardship and owed a debt to smugglers, which she hoped to resolve by bringing her other child from Mexico to the United States.
Lake Saint Louis Police Chief Chris DiGiuseppi praised the collaboration with federal investigators and said human trafficking often happens in plain sight.
“Educating law enforcement, medical staff and the public on the indicators of human trafficking will ultimately aid in protecting victims and holding suspects accountable,” DiGiuseppi said.
However, in many sanctuary jurisdictions, local law enforcement agencies are prohibited from working with ICE investigators, even in matters of child safety, due to local policies and state laws that bar police from sharing information with ICE.
