Wednesday, July 27, 2022 | Back issues
Migrant smuggling in trailers a booming business in Texas
While truckers convicted of transporting immigrants who die in their trailers face punishment of up to life in prison or even the death penalty, the average sentence for human smuggling is just 15 months.
CAMERON LANGFORD / July 27, 2022
Police and other first responders work the scene of a human smuggling tragedy where dozens of migrants were found dead in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on Monday, June 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
HOUSTON (CN) — At the Southwest border, people smugglers are inviting another mass tragedy. Border Patrol agents at a checkpoint north of Laredo have discovered groups of 145, 124, 110 and 95 undocumented immigrants in sealed semitrailers this year amid a proliferation of illicit transports.
David McKeon, 67, of Laredo, was approached at his birthday party in April by people who knew he had an expired commercial driver’s license. He told investigators they pressured him into accepting the job. At 11 p.m. on April 20, he pulled into the checkpoint and handed agents his shipping manifest.
They went to the back of his trailer to compare its seal to his manifest and heard noises coming from inside. They opened a vent door and discovered 124 people, all in the country without papers.
https://www.courthousenews.com/migrant-smuggling-in-trailers-a-booming-business-in-texas/
