The Dominican consul general told CNN today that he warned the leader of a group of American Baptists that they were going to get in trouble, because they did not have the proper documentation for the Haitian children they tried to smuggle out of the country.

“I warned her, I said as soon as you get there without the proper documents, you are going to get into trouble, because they are going to accuse you, because you have the intent to pass the border without the proper papers and they are going to accuse you with kids trafficking,” Carlos Castillo said he told the group’s leader, Laura Silsby, during a meeting Friday.

Four hours later, Silsby and nine other Americans were turned back from the border. They were arrested and taken to a jail in Port-au-Prince.

“This woman knew what she was trying to do was not legal,” Castillo said.

A CNN reporter attempted to get reaction to Castillo’s comment from the jailed Americans, but they would not discuss the matter, responding to questions by singing “Amazing Grace” and praying.

And it gets worse; the leader of the Baptists claims she did not know that many of the children had living parents, but interpreters used by the group contradict her denial.

Told earlier that many of the children had living parents, Silsby said, “I did not know that.” She added, “In our hearts, our intention was to help children that had been orphaned or abandoned by their parents.”

But the interpreters the group had used said the conversations between Silsby and the parents in the Haitian town of Calebasse made clear to them that Silsby must have been aware of the children’s status.

SOS Children’s Villages, an Austrian charity, said that it has determined that at least two-thirds of the children are not orphans.

(Hat tip: Marjorie.)