Law enforcement officials in Texas have dismantled a human smuggling operation near San Antonio, rescuing more than two dozen people from “stifling hot” conditions on Thursday.
The 26 illegal immigrants, the youngest of which is believed to be 18 years old, were hidden inside a “false compartment” of a “long gooseneck trailer” for three hours before being transported to a rural shack. Temperatures were in the high 90s during mid-afternoon hours.
“It’s miserable conditions in there and just blazing hot. Fortunately, we were able to get these people before they passed,” Bexar County Sheriff’s Javier Salazer told reporters on Thursday, reported CBS News.
Officials began to surveil the trailer after they received a tip earlier that morning about a suspected human smuggling operation.
“That trailer… you can be standing right there next to it and not know that thing contains 26 people. So it drove by thousands of cars, easily,” the sheriff said.
The trailer eventually pulled up to a rural residence outside San Antonio that appeared to be a “wooden shack” without air conditioning or running water. Authorities found weapons and bulletproof vests in the structure, suggesting the operation was in place for some time and likely part of a larger “cartel-related” operation, according to officials.
When authorities arrived on the scene, some people “took off running,” but law enforcement confirmed that everyone had been accounted for.
“It’s under control, but it was a pretty chaotic situation,” the sheriff said.
Seven people were taken into custody, but more arrests are expected, according to officials. They also noted that it’s common for human smugglers, or “coyotes” as they are often called, to pose as victims.
Salazer said 11 out of the 26 illegal immigrants were hospitalized due to heat-related illnesses.
“Everybody is out of the woods as far as losing their life,” he said.
Officials said that it is unclear if all the illegal immigrants paid the human smugglers to get into the United States or if some of them were held against their will. But the sheriff confirmed that one woman in the group was identified as a Guatemalan national who paid $16,000 to be transported across the border.
Local and federal authorities, including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, continue to investigate the incident.
A similar but deadly human smuggling operation in San Antonio happened in June 2022 when 53 illegal immigrants, including children, were found inside a semi-trailer. The illegal immigrants died after traveling from the border city of Laredo in a semi-trailer on an extremely hot day. The incident was considered one of the deadliest human smuggling operations in the country.
Executive Action
The human smuggling sting comes just several days after President Joe Biden signed an executive order on illegal immigration to bar migrants who cross the southern border illegally from receiving asylum.
The executive action will make it easier for immigration officers to quickly remove individuals who do not have a legal basis to stay in the U.S., according to a White House statement. But the White House also said the actions are “not permanent” and will be discontinued when the number of migrants who cross the border is “low enough” to safely manage border operations.