Former Mexican police chief is in the U.S.

Marisol Valles Garcia, the former police chief of Praxedis G. Guerrero, Mexico, who took office when she was just 20 years old, is in the United States, an official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement was reported as saying.

Valles Garcia grabbed international attention last year when she took over the top job in a police force whose officers have been abducted and killed.

Last year, she was the only person who accepted the top police job. Valles Garcia was named police chief in October 2010.

Around the time she took the post, a 59-year-old local mayor, Rito Grado Serrano, and his 37-year-old son, Rigoberto Grado Villa, were killed in a house in which they were hiding in nearby Ciudad Juarez. Another area mayor was killed in June.

There are reports that Valles Garcia left Mexico to seek asylum in the United States because of threats, but local authorities in Mexico have not confirmed that.

City officials have said that Valles Garcia, a criminology student, was on personal leave because her 8-month-old baby is sick. They expected her back Monday.

But because she didn't show up or ask for an extension, the mayor terminated her.

"Marisol Valles Garcia is in the United States and she will have the opportunity to present the facts of her case before an impartial immigration judge. Absent a signed privacy waiver, there are no additional details," the official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement added.

ORIGINAL SOURCE