Two American citizens were arrested by El Centro Sector Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents earlier this week, according to that agency. 

A female driver and passenger, both unnamed, were transporting two girls, ages 10 and 12, when they approached the Highway 86 immigration checkpoint near Westmorland, California. 

CBP said the driver initially claimed she was driving from Arizona to California but later admitted that she had crossed the U.S. southern border with Mexico at the San Luis Port of Entry in Arizona earlier in the day. The vehicle was then referred for secondary inspection. 

Two unnamed female suspects were caught smuggling children into the United States. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection )

A U.S. Border Patrol agent sits in a truck on a road outside a ranch gate near Carrizzo Springs, Texas. (Eddie Seal/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Earlier in the month of March, Eduardo Domingo Renoj-Matul and Cristobal Mejia-Chaj, both Guatemalan nationals, were arrested by federal agents and accused of operating one of the largest human smuggling rings in the country. 

The pair allegedly smuggled 20,000 illegal immigrants into the United States from 2019 until their arrests.