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Tip leads state trooper to stop 86 undocumented immigrants from being smuggled

Four children, including a 3-year-old, were among the 86 people found inside a chilly produce trailer near the Texas border.

Edinburg, Texas — A tractor trailer loaded with 86 undocumented immigrants was discovered by police Tuesday night near the border town of Raymondville.

Texas Department of Public Safety and U.S. Border Patrol officials held a joint press conference Wednesday, detailing how a tip led a state trooper to pull over the driver of a refrigerated produce tractor trailer.

A total of 86 undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Central America, including four children, were seen being pulled out of the trailer.

“The smugglers are treating these illegal aliens as if they are cargo, not human beings,” said Border Patrol Acting Chief Carla Provost. “They don’t care about them. It’s money for them.”

Authorities say 40-degree temperatures inside the trailer forced people to make a hole through the roof to try to escape. No one died. Two were hospitalized.

This case resembles last year’s fatal hot trailer incident at a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio. Ten people died while others barely made it out alive. That driver is now sentenced to life in prison.

“Between the Laredo sector and the Rio Grande Valley sector, we’ve seen approximately 100 different incidents of tractor trailer loads,” noted Provost. “And approximately 1,400 rescues have been made.”

That’s so far this year.

The driver and a passenger may face prosecution.

Authorities used this example of human trafficking to show the importance of reporting suspicious activity.

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