Smugglers Pack Migrants in Trains, Box Truck near Border in Texas

Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 100 migrants packed into trains and a box truck over the past week. The human smugglers packed the migrants in dangerous and inhumane situations in attempts to move them into the U.S. interior.

Over the past week, Uvalde Station agents working train operations recovered nearly 100 migrants locked inside rail cars, according to a tweet from Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Jason D. Owens.

“Train check ops are essential to layered enforcement w/ agents routinely performing rescues and arrests aboard trains,” Chief Owens stated. “Without our agents in the field, who knows who or what is stowed away.”

Elsewhere in the sector, Uvalde Police Department officers requested assistance from Border Patrol agents after finding a group of migrants locked inside a U-Haul box truck.

“Imagine being locked in w/ no way out & no idea how long you will be there!” Owens said in another tweet. “Border Security is important to everyone, especially those whose lives are put in danger by criminal smugglers.”

Along Interstate 35 between Laredo and San Antonio, Laredo North Station agents stopped two additional human smuggling attempts. The first, on December 10, involved a maroon pickup truck stopped by agents near the 32-mile marker. The agents found six more migrants packed into the rear seat space of the truck.

The following day, agents patrolling north of the Interstate 35 immigration checkpoint found eight more migrants on a ranch attempting to circumvent the checkpoint and avoid apprehension.

The migrants in these two interdictions came from Guatemala and Mexico, officials stated.