Abducted Baby's Father: Why Us?

Three days after his 2-month-old baby was taken by a woman he said claimed to be an immigration official, Andres Cruz said he doesn't have a clue why someone would have done that.

"We haven't done anything to anyone or owe anything," he said. "Why would anyone harm us?"

His daughter was taken Monday. On Tuesday, investigators found uninjured. The woman accused of taking her, 43-year-old Amalia Tabata Pereira, was charged with false imprisonment, interference with child custody and impersonating a social service worker.

Cruz and the child's mother, Rosa Sirilo-Francisco, said a woman claiming to be an immigration official lied to them to get them to hand over their child. The woman said immigration officers were waiting to deport Sirilo-Francisco's family to Mexico and claimed she wanted to help the couple, but that she had to take the baby with her, Sirilo-Francisco said.

Cruz said he was scared when the woman asked for his baby. But he said today that he didn't know to ask the woman for identification and that he didn't want to call police while his coworkers were around.

In their first interview since their child was recovered, Cruz and Sirilo-Francisco spoke today from their Plant City home. Cruz said they are cooperating with law enforcement.

Their baby was born in Tampa, Cruz said. But Cruz said he and Sirilo-Francisco do not have proper documentation to be in the United States.

He and Sirilo-Francisco are from Hidalgo, Mexico, and plan to get married here or in Mexico. They don't speak English and said they waited to report the child's disappearance to law enforcement until a bilingual neighbor went with them to Plant City police.

Cruz picks strawberries at a farm. Sirilo-Francisco stays home with the baby.

Cruz said he and his wife came to the United States to earn a living. He never imagined anyone would try to snatch their child.

Asked if he has a message for Pereira, he said, "Why did she do this? I don't owe her anything. If she gets out of jail, I hope that she doesn't do this to anybody else."

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has launched an investigation into Monday's incident.

"At this time we have no further public information available," ICE spokesman Ivan L. Ortiz-Delgado said.

Today, Cruz said, he wants the migrant community to know that regardless of legal status in this country, people need to report crimes.

Asked if he worried he and Sirilo-Francisco would be deported because they came forward to investigators about their missing child, Cruz said, "I don't have anything to fight with the law. If we're asked to leave, we'll leave."

Immigration officials say victims of crimes such as false imprisonment could apply for a visa that would last up to four years.

Meanwhile, Pereira had her first Hillsborough County court appearance on the charges in this morning.

A judge ordered her bail to remain $750,000. That's the amount a Manatee County judge set on Wednesday before Pereira was transferred to Orient Road Jail.

Pereira declined to comment today.

The baby was taken hours after an initial conversation between Sirilo-Francisco and Pereira inside the Plant City Health Department, where baby Sandra's mother took her for a routine check-up.

Pereira turned herself in to Manatee County deputies near her Bradenton home Tuesday, more than 24 hours after the baby was taken. An anonymous call to deputies that helped them find Pereira and the baby will be released to the media next week, Manatee County sheriff's spokesman Dave Bristow said.

This isn't Pereira's first legal issue. About eight years ago, Pereira was convicted of arson, grand theft and forgery and spent two years and nine months in prison.

Pereira is the wife of Pittsburgh Pirates minor league player Jose Tabata. They were married in January 2008 at an Amscot on Armenia Avenue in Tampa.

According to a Pirates spokesman, Tabata, 20, was given a few days off after the arrest because he is "distraught, confused and frustrated."