60 Undocumented Immigrants Discovered In Refrigerated Trailer

Sixty immigrants were discovered in Texas in a refrigerated trailer carrying frozen broccoli, according to federal officials Monday. The truck was stopped and searched at a south Texas checkpoint.

The undocumented immigrants were found lying on sheets of ice in the trailer Saturday morning. The trailer doors were padlocked from the outside, trapping the immigrants inside. The temperature in the trailer was 49 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a statement released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB).

The group was detained and processed at the Falfurrias, Texas, Border Patrol Station. The group consisted of people hailing from Mexico, Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

The driver, who is from Guatemala, was arrested on suspicion of federal charges of alien smuggling.

“Criminal activity like this will also lead to serious consequences for truck drivers who engage in smuggling,” said CPB patrol agent Manuel Padilla Jr. in a statement.

Border patrol discovered 16 immigrants locked inside of a semitrailer in a gas station in Edinburg, Texas, and another 20 immigrants last week near El Paso, Texas, according to the Associated Press. The individuals discovered in those incidents were not injured and in good condition.

Nine undocumented immigrants were discovered dead in July in a sweltering hot truck in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, Texas. At least 19 other immigrants discovered in the incident were hospitalized due to dehydration and heat stroke.

President Donald Trump will visit Phoenix Tuesday night for a rally and stop by a CPB checkpoint in Yuma, Arizona as part of the trip. Trump, a hardliner for cracking down on immigration in the U.S. had endorsed building a wall along the United States border with Mexico. He laid out his vision for immigration enforcement in Phoenix last year.

Trump’s rhetoric has led to a decrease in people detained at the border, dropping over 40 percent in the first half of 2017, according to Boston NPR-affiliate WBUR.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have made more immigration arrests since Trump took office, but deportations are down, according to USA Today.

“The truth is, our immigration system is worse than anyone realizes. But the facts aren’t known because the media won’t report on them, the politicians won’t talk about them, and the special interests spend a lot of money trying to cover them up,” said Trump in Arizona last year. “The fundamental problem with the immigration system in our country is that it serves the needs of wealthy donors, political activists and powerful politicians. Let me tell you who it doesn’t serve: it doesn’t serve you, the American people.”