An Alaska man is charged with helping a Honduran woman and her daughter enter the United States illegally after federal agents caught them in south Texas.
Court documents show agents arrested Douglas Eugene Price, 43, on Sunday in Anchorage.
According to the charging document, which originates from the U.S. District Court for southern Texas, this is what federal prosecutors say happened:
Border Patrol agents caught the daughter in the brush near Hidaldo, Texas on Jan. 16 after she had crossed the Rio Grande River by herself from Mexico. Screenshots included in the charges against Price show the daughter was born in 2011, making her 14 or 15.
The daughter told agents she and her mother were trying to get to Price in Chugiak, Alaska, and that Price had paid human smugglers to help them.
Six days later, agents caught the mother while she was crossing the river. The mother told them she had met Price about four years earlier while they were working on remodeling a hotel, and that she also worked as his housekeeper and babysitter.
The mother told agents she kept in frequent contact with Price on her journey from Honduras. She said Price sent the smugglers $5,000 from an account for his business, Black Bear Construction. The woman said she planned to pay back the money by working for Price when she got to Alaska.
Agents searched the woman’s phone and confirmed the transfer.
The charges against Price note that he is a registered sex offender but do not explain why that fact is included.
Price is listed in the Alaska Sex Offender Registry, and court records from Oregon show he was charged with rape and second-degree sexual abuse in 2018. Those charges were dismissed, and Price was convicted of the lesser crime of attempting to commit a Class B felony, which appears to have included the stipulation that he register as a sex offender. It was unclear late Monday whether the case involved a minor or adult victim.
Angela Dodge, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern Texas District described the decision to include Price's sex offender status as "basic facts" that "we believe relevant to the case as a whole."
Calls to Black Bear Construction went unanswered Monday. Price did not have an attorney listed in court records, which showed he was set to make an initial court appearance on Thursday.
