US Border: Migrants Smuggled by the Truckload Caught by Law Officers
El Paso Border Patrol Sector has busted two-dozen of these schemes this year.
State and Federal Law Enforcement Officers along the US Southern Border have been arresting migrants by the truckload in recent days.
The largest bust occurred Sunday, December 15, 2024, at a Border Patrol Checkpoint on Interstate 25 near Las Cruces, New Mexico. As Agents inspected a tractor-trailer they heard movement inside the trailer.
When they opened the trailer's doors they found 37 migrants - from Guatemala, Mexico, Cuba, El Salvador, and Ecuador - hiding behind a load of stacked tires and took them into custody. During fiscal year 2024, Agents in this Border Patrol Sector have busted 24 human smuggling attempts involving tractor-trailers - resulting in the apprehension of 387 migrants.
A State Trooper attempting to make a traffic stop on I-35 in Southwest Texas discovered another truckload of migrants when the driver unexpectedly jumped out of the cab as the DPS Officer pulled his truck over in La Salle County.
Officers began searching all of the compartments of the work truck and found migrants crammed into each one. Once all of the compartments of the Ford F-350 pick-up were emptied 14 migrants from Mexico were taken into custody along with the driver who was attempting to smuggle them to San Antonio.
The migrants were turned over to the Border Patrol. The driver faces state 14 counts of smuggling of persons and evading arrest.
Finally, Arizona DPS Officers and Casa Grande Station Border Patrol Agents also interrupted an attempt to smuggle a group of migrants into the country inside the trailer of a "U-Haul" truck.
11 migrants - one of them a small child - were taken into custody while the two U.S. citizens inside the cab of the truck were arrested on human smuggling charges.
The Border Patrol says these attempts to smuggle migrants by truck are dangerous as the migrants are usually locked inside the vehicles and crammed into confined spaces without seat belts, adequate ventilation, or climate control which exposes them to high temperatures in the summer and freezing conditions in the winter.
Do you believe enough is being done to prevent human smuggling along the US - Mexico border?
Share your opinion in the comments on this article!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
