Hunt intensifies for missing ‘Million’ with Mexico, US officials

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has made contact with the mother of five-year-old Malaisha ‘Million’ Miller and multinational efforts are being made to ascertain the whereabouts of the young Jamaican.

Miller, who will turn six later this month, remains unaccounted for after she, along with her mother, 30-year-old Teresa Wilson, and eight-month-old sister, were being smuggled through Mexico across the United States border.

The three left Jamaica for Panama on May 25, but only the younger sibling and Wilson entered the US, Sharon Saunders, Jamaica’s ambassador to Mexico, confirmed with The Gleaner Thursday.

Wilson and the eight-month-old were detained in Arizona but were released on Wednesday.

Saunders, who made contact with Wilson Thursday evening, told The Gleaner that her job now is to continue working with overseas authorities to determine the status of Malaisha.

“We still have not been able to get anything concrete from the Mexican authorities ... . We really need to find this child. That’s the important thing,” the ambassador said.

Saunders, who described the incident as sad, said a concentrated effort is being undertaken with Mexican and US officials, as well as Jamaican consular staff, to locate Malaisha.

“We have formally written and called the authorities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here (in Mexico), the legal department, who we work with and had the opportunity to speak to, then they referred to an immigration department in the States,” Saunders said.

The Jamaicans’ family, who live in Waterhouse, St Andrew, are praying that the infant will be found safe.

Wilson’s mother, Lorna Pryce, 67, told The Gleaner earlier this week that her daughter had made contact on her arrival in the US and informed her that the five-year-old was missing.

“She said she can’t find Million. Is like tru dem a run and she have to run ... because around 10 of dem,” Pryce said.

“I don’t know if Million get mix up with the other batch ‘cause she and the whole of dem run, but yuh know, as she run in, police pick dem up.”

There was a more than 60 per cent surge in travel between Jamaica and Mexico in 2021, but immigration authorities have been clamping down on locals engaging in a pricey and dangerous human-smuggling scheme. Panama is usually the first port of call.

Pryce said Wilson was willing to risk the journey out of fear for her life.

Her daughter, popularly known as ‘Stushi’, had ambitions of escaping not only poverty, but the haunting clutches of gun crime.

The human-smuggling trips cost around J$300,000 per person, with an extra J$200,000 per child.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey, who heads the crime portfolio, said the police were aware of Jamaicans’ involvement in human-smuggling schemes in an attempt to reach the US through Mexico.