Border Patrol agents detain 27 illegal migrants in Texas who were found crammed inside a U-Haul truck’s cargo area where temperatures reached 106F
- U.S. Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas, stopped a cargo truck transporting 27 illegal migrants Sunday afternoon
- The temperature inside the U-Haul truck’s cargo area reached 106 degrees Fahrenheit
- The migrants – natives of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras – and the driver and a passenger – both citizens of the United States – were all arrested
Border Patrol agents assigned to a checkpoint on a Texas highway pulled over a moving truck for inspection and detained 27 undocumented migrants crammed inside the vehicle’s cargo area where temperatures topped 106 Fahrenheit.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the U-Haul truck was traveling north on Interstate 35 in Laredo on Sunday when the agents assigned to the Laredo Sector ordered the driver to stop.
The migrants were identified as natives of Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico.
CBP said the driver and a passenger, both citizens of the United States, were placed under arrest.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, agents from the U.S. Border Patrol Laredo Sector stopped a U-Hail truck Sunday and detained 27 migrants from Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico who were allegedly being smuggled by a driver and passenger, both U.S. citizens
The truck was stopped on Interstate 35 in Laredo, Texas, as part of an immigration checkpoint conducted by agents assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol Laredo Sector
A Border Patrol agent’s thermometer registers the temperature inside the U-Haul truck’s cargo area where 27 migrants were hidden
‘Though human smugglers may try different ways to attempt to avoid detection, our agents remain vigilant and committed to our border security and national security mission’, Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak said.
Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents arrested at least 5,3000 migrants who were found inside more than 165 trucks that were stopped at immigration checkpoints throughout fiscal year 2021.
The current fiscal year runs from October 1, 2020 to September 30, 2021.
By comparison, agents detained 2,300 migrants in all of fiscal year in 2020.
This chart shows how 2021 border crossings – pictured in blue – rocketed on crossings made in 2020, represented by the brown line (2018 is pictured in gray, with 2019 in orange)
Former President Donald Trump speaks toured a section a border wall in Alamo, Texas on January 12, 2021
A new monthly report released by CBP on June 9 showed that Border Patrol agents stopped 180,034 migrants in May along the southwestern border, a slight increase from 178,854 the prior month, with the increase driven largely by single adults.
Laredo Sector border officers saw encounters with migrant individuals spike from 10,926 in April to 76,670 in May.
The latest smuggling attempt comes on the heels of former President Donald Trump announcing he will be joining Texas Governor Greg Abbott for a trip to the southern border June 30.
While CBP stats showed a rise in encounters with unlawful border crossers at the United State-Mexico international line during his last months in office, Trump slammed the Biden administration for ‘our nation’s decimated southern border.’
‘The Biden administration inherited from me the strongest, safest, and most secure border in US history and in mere weeks they turned it into the single worst border crisis in US history,’ he said.
‘We went from having border security that was the envy of the world to a lawless border that is now pitied around the world.’
From March to May more than 530,000 people were apprehended and pushed back into Mexico after attempting to cross without legal immigration papers, according to the Customs and Border Protection.
There is no official estimate on how many did get through, but the sheer number of attempts suggests a rise in successful crossings, CBP officers have said.