(12-08) 21:10 PST HOUSTON (AP) --

A South African woman whose arrest heightened fears that terrorists were slipping across the U.S.-Mexico border has been sentenced to time served and will be deported.

Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, sentenced Tuesday, had been in custody since July 19, when Border Patrol officers at the airport stopped her as she tried to board a plane for New York; she did not have a visa to travel in the United States.

The officers later discovered her passport had three pages ripped out of it.

Ahmed, 48, also was carrying about $7,300 in various currencies as well as flight itineraries indicating she traveled from Johannesburg on July 8, via Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to London, then to Mexico City on or about July 14...

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