Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar was arrested Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the international crossing at San Ysidro, California.
Guzman Salazar, who doesn't have legal documents to enter the United States, was caught trying to use a counterfeit visa to enter the country, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case.
She is pregnant and wanted to have her baby in the United States, the complaint said.
A federal official, who is not authorized to speak to the media and declined to be named, said that the woman is the daughter of the drug lord Guzman.
The Homeland Security Department is investigating Guzman Salazar to see if there is any evidence to warrant additional charges, the source said.
Guzman Salazar's lawyer, Guadalupe Valencia, would not confirm nor deny that his client is related to Mexico's most-wanted man. But he did say that she is pregnant and in good health at an immigration detention center.
She had an initial court appearance this week, and her next hearing will be October 25, according to court records.
"El Chapo" Guzman is the boss of the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico's most powerful drug trafficking operations.
His nickname, which means "shorty," matches his 5-foot-6-inch frame, though he has climbed to great heights in the drug smuggling business. Forbes magazine has estimated El Chapo is worth $1 billion.
The U.S. Treasury Department has declared him the most influential trafficker in the world, and Mexican authorities have been on his tail ever since his 2001 escape from a Mexican prison.
It's not the first time that a Guzman relative came to the United States to have a baby.
Last year, El Chapo's wife gave birth to twins in a Los Angeles hospital and returned to Mexico.
His wife, the beauty queen Emma Coronel, carries both U.S. and Mexican citizenship and apparently violated no U.S. laws in traveling to California to give birth.
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