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Law
enforcement
officers
work at
the
scene
where
migrants
were
found
dead
inside a
trailer
truck in
San
Antonio,
Texas,
U.S.
June 28,
2022.
REUTERS/Kaylee
Greenlee
Beal |
|
Alleged
truck
driver
posed as
victim
after
Texas
migrant
deaths
reuters.com
SAN
ANTONIO/MEXICO
CITY,
June 29
(Reuters)
- The
alleged
driver
of a
truck
carrying
dozens
of
migrants
who died
in the
suffocating
heat in
Texas
this
week
initially
tried to
pass
himself
off as a
victim
to
escape
authorities
before
he was
arrested,
U.S. and
Mexican
officials
said on
Wednesday.
The
death
toll in
the
incident
rose to
53 as
some
migrants
who had
been
trapped
in the
sweltering
tractor-trailer
died in
the
hospital,
local
officials
said.
The
truck
was
discovered
on
Monday
in a
desolate
area
near a
highway
in San
Antonio,
where
temperatures
that day
soared
as high
as 103
Fahrenheit
(39.4
Celsius).
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now for
FREE
unlimited
access
to
Reuters.com
More
people -
including
minors -
remain
hospitalized
in the
worst
human
smuggling
incident
in
recent
U.S.
history,
officials
said.
Mexicans
made up
about
half of
the
deceased
who
perished
after
being
trapped
in the
back of
the
truck.
Dozens
of
Mexican
families
this
week
have
waited
anxiously
for news
of
missing
loved
ones who
they
fear may
be among
the
dead.
read
more
A
Mexican
official
and two
U.S.
officials,
all
speaking
on
condition
of
anonymity,
identified
the
alleged
driver
as
Homero
Zamorano,
45 and
an
identification
document
seen by
Reuters
showed
he had
an
address
in
Houston,
Texas.
Surveillance
photographs
published
by
Mexican
immigration
officials
captured
the
truck
driving
through
a
security
checkpoint
in
Laredo,
Texas,
at 2:50
p.m. CT
(1950
GMT) on
Monday.
U.S.
authorities
detained
two
Mexican
men in
addition
to the
driver
who were
arrested
leaving
a house
in San
Antonio.
On
Wednesday,
U.S.
prosecutors
were
moving
ahead
with
weapons
charges
against
them.
A
federal
judge in
San
Antonio,
Texas,
ordered
the
suspects
-
identified
as Juan
Francisco
D'Luna-Bilbao
and Juan
Claudio
D'Luna-Mendez
-
detained
until a
preliminary
hearing
on
Friday.
Both men
were
charged
on
Tuesday
with
possessing
firearms
while
residing
in the
United
States
illegally.
read
more
Francisco
Garduno,
the head
of
Mexico's
National
Migration
Institute,
said at
a news
conference
on
Wednesday
that the
tractor-trailer
passed
through
two U.S.
Customs
and
Border
Protection
checkpoints
in
Texas,
where it
was
captured
on
security
cameras.
The
first
was in
the town
of
Encinal,
40 miles
(65 km)
north of
Laredo,
and the
second
in
Cotulla,
30 miles
farther
north.
Garduno
later
told
reporters
the
trailer
did not
cross
the
U.S.-Mexico
border
with the
migrants
inside.
"The
migrants
were
already
on U.S.
soil,"
before
entering
the
truck,
he said.
A source
within
Mexico's
immigration
institute
said,
given
smuggling
dynamics,
the
migrants
likely
crossed
the
border
in
smaller
groups
before
being
concentrated
in a
smuggling
stash
house on
the U.S.
side and
then
squeezed
into the
tractor-trailer
to be
moved
farther
into the
United
States.
Between
6,000
and
6,800
trucks
cross
northbound
through
the
Nuevo
Laredo-Laredo
international
port of
entry
daily,
according
to
Mexican
customs
data.
Garduno
said on
Wednesday
that 14
Hondurans,
seven
Guatemalans
and two
Salvadorans
died
alongside
the 27
Mexican
fatalities
reported
a day
earlier.
One of
the
bodies
found in
Texas
had not
yet been
identified,
and 16
migrants
were
still in
six
local
hospitals,
Garduno
said.
Three of
the
injured
are
Mexicans,
and the
nationalities
of 13
others
remain
unclear,
he
added.
Garduno
said
there
were 67
migrants
on board
the
truck,
lower
than
earlier
estimates
by some
U.S.
officials.
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now for
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unlimited
access
to
Reuters.com
Reporting
by Jason
Buch in
San
Antonio
and Dave
Graham
in
Mexico
City;
Additional
reporting
by
Valentine
Hilaire
in
Mexico
City,
Laura
Gottesdiener
in
Monterrey,
and Ted
Hesson
in
Washington;
Editing
by Mica
Rosenberg
and Lisa
Shumaker
Our
Standards:
The
Thomson
Reuters
Trust
Principles.
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