U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have launched an investigation after more than 50 illegal immigrants from Central and South America were found packed inside the back of a parked tractor-trailer found in a residential area of San Antonio, Texas, late Tuesday.
Special agents from ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations got a call from local police around 8:30 p.m. Central Time Tuesday about a possible human-smuggling incident in North Side, San Antonio, ICE spokeswoman Nina Pruneda confirmed to the Washington Examiner Wednesday.
At the scene, HSI discovered 54 people in the air-conditioned trailer. The group included men, women, and a few minors. All were from Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.
Firefighters who also responded to the scene at 8400 Laurelhurst Drive bought pizza for the dozens of people while they waited outside the truck as investigators processed the scene, according to a local report.
Five people were taken to a local hospital for medical care and only one remains in the hospital as of Wednesday evening. Temperatures topped 90 degrees in San Antonio Tuesday.
“The people rescued from this tractor-trailer were very lucky to have been discovered before the Texas heat took its toll,” the HSI special agent in charge in San Antonio, Shane M. Folden, said in a statement. “We have recently seen how smuggled people have died under the dangerous circumstances human smugglers transport their human cargo.”
A fire chief at the scene said the people inside were fortunate to have had air conditioning and an adequate supply of water following recent incidents in which migrants have died while being smuggled due to decrepit conditions.
“This truck was air-conditioned, thank God. This truck had water. So they were hydrated,” San Antonio Fire Department Chef Charles Hood.
HSI identified the truck driver as a U.S. citizen and said he was arrested on federal charges for human smuggling.
With the exception of those hurt in the smuggling attempt, the group was transported to an ICE detention center.
