11 indicted in smuggling deaths of 7 migrants in rail cargo container in Texas

Eleven people were charged Friday with causing the deaths of seven migrants by trapping them inside a train container in sweltering Texas heat after they were smuggled into the United States.

Among the six people found dead inside the shipping container in a rail yard in the Texas border city of Laredo was a 14-year-old boy. Another person had been left for dead near the tracks in San Antonio, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons.

“In that kind of heat, it’s May in Texas, ultimately it’s very hard to survive in an un-air conditioned, sealed container with … the temperature being what it was on that day,” Simmons said.

The group boarded the train in the Texas border town of Del Rio intending to reach San Antonio, but when smugglers there opened the door, a man fell out, so they closed it and fled, Simmons said.

The next day the train departed for Laredo, where a worker at the Union Pacific Rail Yard saw a leg sticking out and found the other six bodies inside.

“One of those individuals frantically contacted their family as they were dying from the sweltering heat in that container,” Simmons said.

The migrants were from Honduras and Mexico and included a 14-year-old boy, authorities said. The Webb County medical examiner suspected the deaths were caused by hyperthermia, or heat stroke.

The shipping container, which was stacked on top of another container, could not be opened from the inside and had no ventilation or cooling system. The temperatures that day ranged from 88 to 92 degrees Fahrenheit (31 to 33 degrees Celsius), the U.S. Attorney’s office said.

The group was indicted on two charges: Conspiracy to transport aliens, resulting in death, and aiding and abetting the transportation of aliens resulting in death. Each is punishable by up to life in prison, Simmons said.

The migrants paid “generally the equivalent of $1,500-$10,000 to individuals in Honduras, Mexico, the United States, and elsewhere, to be transported into the interior of the United States,” according to the indictment.

One of the defendants was arrested May 12 in Del Rio, and eight more were arrested over several days last week in central and south Texas. A man and a woman remain at large. Officials said four are U.S. citizens, two are permanent U.S. residents, and five were in the U.S. without legal status. They didn’t specify the nationalities of the five.

Smuggling on trains has long been a concern partly because U.S.-bound trains often slow or stop in Mexico before crossing the border, creating opportunities for smugglers or migrants to climb aboard or hide drugs or other contraband. The trains also are used to smuggle people beyond the reach of officers patrolling the border.

In 2023, two people were found dead who were among 17 people in two rail cars near Knippa, Texas, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of San Antonio and less than 100 miles (161 kilometers) from the U.S. border with Mexico.

And two smugglers were sentenced to life in prison last year for what remains the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border. They were convicted in the deaths of 53 migrants inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022.

Laredo is a particularly busy land port for U.S.-Mexico trade and a common nexus for the illegal movement of people. About 40 people were encountered daily in March crossing illegally by Border Patrol agents in the sector, making it the third busiest among nine along the border, according to the agency’s statistics.

Rebecca Boone, The Associated Press