AN American woman wanted by US federal authorities for kidnapping her two children and who ran away to the Philippines to hide has been nabbed by immigration authorities.
They identified the woman as Ana Centillas Lorrigan of southern California who was cornered in Barangay Calapacuan, Subic, Zambales by operatives from the bureau’s fugitive search unit.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said Lorrigan would be deported to the US for being an undocumented alien as her US passport and that of her two children have since expired.
“Lorrigan left her children with her sister,” Morente said.
“She is considered undocumented and as a consequence she lost her privilege to stay here.”
The US Embassy in Manila sought out the BI for the arrest of Lorrigan who is on trial before a US district court in southern California where she was indicted for the crime of international parental kidnapping.
The International Parental Kidnapping Crime Act, a US federal law enacted in 1993, is a crime by taking away a child from the US or detaining a child outside the US with the intent to obstruct a parent’s custodial rights, Morente said.
“Individuals found guilty of violating the said law may be sentenced to a maximum jail term of three years,” he said.
BI spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang said Lorrigan and her children, a girl and a boy, came to the Philippines on April 15, 2011 and did not leave the country since then.
The BI board of commissioners ordered Lorrigan deported for posing risk to public safety and security and being a fugitive from justice.
“She will then be placed in our immigration blacklist to prevent her from returning to the Philppines,” Mangrobang said.