33 Migrants Apprehended After Failed Smuggling Attempt in Texas Border Town

Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents stopped a human smuggling attempt and apprehended a group of multinational migrants who illegally crossed the border from Mexico. The smugglers locked the group in a tractor-trailer.

Laredo South Station Border Patrol agents received a tip on January 14 about a suspicious activity involving a tractor-trailer near Green Street and North Smith Avenue in Laredo, Texas. The agents coordinated with Laredo Police Department officers to stop the human smuggling attempt, according to information obtained from Laredo Sector Border Patrol officials.

Border Patrol agents searched the tractor-trailer and found a large group of migrants locked inside the trailer, officials stated. In total, the agents arrested 33 migrants who were all illegally present in the United States.

Immigration interviews conducted by the agents determined the migrants came to the U.S. from China, Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico. All 33 were transported to the Laredo South Station for processing.

Officials seized the tractor-trailer utilized in the failed human-smuggling attempt.

Breitbart Texas reports extensively on the human smuggling interdictions and migrant rescues carried out by Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents.

In December 2019, Laredo Sector agents disrupted two human smuggling attempts involving tractor-trailers. In one incident, the migrants were marked and tagged like “cargo and commodities,” Laredo Sector officials stated.

Officials reported the migrants’ shirts were marked in a way that appears “to assist the trafficking organization in classifying/identifying the individuals within the group, a similar methodology used to classify cargo and commodities.”

Agents identified the “human cargo” as migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico, officials stated. The male and female migrants all entered the U.S. illegally.

A few days earlier, Laredo North Station agents rescued 27 migrants from a tractor-trailer where the temperature was reported to be 30 degrees Fahrenheit, Breitbart Texas reported.