A woman who identified herself as a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement employee to Border Patrol agents during a smuggling attempt in Falfurrias was sentenced Wednesday to 21 months in prison, federal court records show.

Nancy Berenisse Fernandez Luna pleaded guilty in December 2024 to a charge of conspiracy to transport undocumented migrants within the United States.

Luna was one of two individuals arrested after a charter bus with 39 migrants arrived at the Falfurrias checkpoint on Oct. 4, 2024.

According to a criminal complaint, Luna told Border Patrol agents she was working with ICE and escorting COVID-positive undocumented juveniles.

While inspecting the charter bus, Border Patrol agents contacted the Centralized Processing Center, and were told they had no transport buses in operation at the time.

The complaint later revealed Luna was actually a government contract employee for MVM, a government contract transport company. 

Luna and the bus driver — identified in court as her boyfriend, Juan Torres Ayala — were detained and later arrested on human smuggling charges. Ayala provided a statement saying he was being paid $1,800 to illegally transport the migrants, the complaint said.

Court records show Ayala also took a similar plea deal to Luna’s. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison in March 2024.

Luna waived her right to appeal as part of the plea agreement. She will remain on bond until Friday, July 11, 2025, when she must turn herself in to the U.S. Marshals Service, court records show.