2 Men Convicted Over Deaths of 53 Migrants in 2022 San Antonio Tractor-Trailer Tragedy
Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzalez-Ortega smuggled 66 migrants into a tractor-trailer in 2022
By Gabrielle Rockson Published on March 19, 2025 10:15AM EDT
Police and other first responders work the scene where officials say dozens of people have been found dead and multiple others were taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses after a tractor-trailer containing suspected migrants was found on June 27, 2022, in San Antonio. One of six men charged in Texas over 53 migrants who died last year in the sweltering tractor-trailer has pleaded guilty for his role in the nation's deadliest human smuggling attempt from Mexico, federal prosecutors said Wednesday, Sept. 27, 2023.
Police and first responders at scene surrounding tactor-trailer containing suspected migrants on June 27, 2022, in San Antonio. Photo: AP Photo/Eric Gay
Two men have been convicted after the 2022 deaths of 53 migrants in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas.
On Thursday, March 18, officials confirmed that the two men had been convicted for their roles in the smuggling event, which also resulted in 11 people being injured.
A third man believed to be involved in the incident was also “extradited from Guatemala to the United States to face justice in the case.”
“These convictions and extradition represent the Justice Department’s commitment to prosecuting the leaders, organizers, and key facilitators of alien smuggling networks that bring people illegally — at significant risk to life — into the United States,” Supervisory Official Matthew R. Galeotti, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a statement as a part of a press release shared by the Office of Public Affairs.
https://people.com/men-convicted-deaths-53-migrants-san-antonio-tractor-trailer-11699617