75 Migrants, Including Small Child, Found Locked in Refrigerated Trailer near Border in Texas

Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol agents found a group of 75 migrants locked inside a refrigerated tractor-trailer rig at an immigration checkpoint near the Texas-Mexico border. The migrants locked inside the 58-degree trailer included a four-year-old child.

Agents assigned to the Falfurrias Immigration Checkpoint on U.S. Highway 281, approximately 80 miles from the border, observed a tractor-trailer approaching for inspection on October 27, according to information obtained from Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol officials. During the initial interview, a Border Patrol K-9 alerted to an odor coming from the trailer it is trained to detect.

The agents had the driver move the rig to a secondary inspection station. The agents opened the locked door of the refrigerated trailer and found a group of 75 migrants shivering inside.

Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Patrol Agent Brian Hastings tweeted images of the migrants bundled up inside the trailer  Hastings reported the temperature inside the trailers was set at 58 degrees. “Among the migrants was a four-year-old child,” he said.

Agents removed the migrants from the trailer and conducted immigration interviews and welfare checks. They identified the migrants as Central American and Mexican migrants. None required medical treatment.

Officials noted the doors of the trailer were padlocked which would have prevented the migrants from getting out in the event of a crash or abandonment by the human smuggler.