Laredo sector Border Patrol agents last week rescued 120 people locked inside a trailer after a failed smuggling attempt at an immigration checkpoint, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed in a news release on Wednesday.
The driver upon inspection fled the black semi-truck that was pulling the white trailer were the migrants were found. He abandoned the vehicle through the passenger door. It is unclear whether he was apprehended.
The 120 migrants, including 11 minors and 109 adults, male and female, from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador and Mexico, would not have been able to get out as the trailer was locked from the outside.
CBP reports that the migrants were fortunate “the weather was unseasonably cool and conditions inside the trailer were bearable.”
According to CBP,
The incident occurred on May 10, 2019 at 12:15 a.m., when agents who were working checkpoint operations encountered a black semi-truck with a white trailer. While interviewing the driver, who claimed to have no identification, a canine alerted to the odors of concealed humans and/or narcotics within the trailer. The tractor-trailer was referred to the secondary inspection area where the driver absconded through the passenger door and ran into an adjacent field.
Agents proceeded to open the trailer and discovered a total of 120 people. Although all individuals appeared to be in good health, they were evaluated by Border Patrol Emergency Medical Technicians. Fortunately for all individuals found inside the trailer, the weather was unseasonably cool and conditions inside the trailer were bearable. Nonetheless, it would have been impossible for the people to escape the trailer as it could not be opened from the inside.
CBP notes in the statement that “the Laredo Sector Border Patrol continues to warn people of the dangers of crossing into the United States illegally.”
“In the majority of cases, those who try to enter our country illegally are subjected to dangerous conditions that put their lives at risk,” writes the agency.
The news comes amid an ongoing crisis on the border with unprecedented and unsustainable numbers of migrants attempting to enter the U.S. illegally.
CBP recently revealed that 109,114 migrants attempted to enter the U.S. illegally in April, averaging over 3,000 apprehensions a day.
That was the second month in a row that arrivals reached over 100,000, with 103,719 total in March.