by Texas sheriff’s deputies responded with Border Patrol agents after receiving a tip about a suspicious tractor-trailer in a residential neighborhood near the border. The law enforcement team found 84 migrants who had been dumped from the 18-wheeler.
Hidalgo County Sheriff Eddie Guerra tweeted photos Thursday afternoon of a human trafficking incident involving a tractor-trailer and a possible home near Olivarez, Texas. The sheriff said deputies working for border security as part of Operation Stone Garden received information about an 18-wheeler unloading suspected immigrants in a residential area.
Happening Now: A concerned citizen reporting a tractor trailer pulls up to a residence located in the area of Mile 12 1/2 N & Mile 6W and sees people unloading from the trailer. Deputies working OPSG & USBP agents responded and rescued 84 UDIs. The investigation is ongoing pic.twitter.com/If9Y8CTwkQ
— Sheriff Eddie Guerra (@SheriffGuerra) October 6, 2022
Deputies and agents of the Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol responded to the area and recovered 84 immigrants who had been transported by smugglers in the refrigerated trailer.
It appears that none of the 84 migrants required medical attention.
Texas deputies find 84 immigrants who had been transported in a tractor-trailer. (Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office)
The sheriff added that the matter remains under investigation. The tweet did not include information about the smuggler or the nationalities of the 84 migrants.
The dangerous practice of locking migrants in the back of tractor-trailers has become more common, and more migrants must be moved across the border to shelters and inside the US.
Earlier this year, agents in the Laredo area found nearly 500 immigrants in nine tractor-trailer smuggling incidents within a week, Breitbart Texas reported.
Unfortunately, this tactic can have deadly consequences. In June, Breitbart reported that at least 53 migrants died after being abandoned on a similar tractor-trailer rig in San Antonio. A senior law enforcement source at the scene told Breitbart Texas that 46 migrants were pronounced dead at the scene or at area hospitals, and at least 16 others were taken to area hospitals. The death toll at the scene was later revised to 48. Five more died in the hours and days that followed.
