Two defendants have been indicted in relation to the Texas tractor trailer smuggling tragedy. | Pixabay
Two defendants have been indicted in relation to the Texas tractor trailer smuggling tragedy. | Pixabay
Two men are now facing federal charges, accused of trying to smuggle people into the U.S. using a tractor trailer in June, resulting in the deaths of 50 adults and three children and injuries to ten more adults and a child.
The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Texas announced that indictments had been returned against Homero Zamorano, Jr., 46, of Pasadena, Texas, and Christian Martinez, 28, of Palestine, Texas, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
"On June 27, 2022, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents responded to the scene of a human smuggling event involving a tractor trailer and 64 individuals suspected of entering the United States illegally," the Department of Justice website said. "San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) officers advised HSI Agents that they arrived at the location of the tractor trailer in southwest San Antonio after receiving 911 calls from concerned citizens. At the scene, SAPD officers discovered multiple individuals, some still inside the tractor trailer, some on the ground and in nearby brush, many of them deceased and some of them incapacitated."
Zamorano and Martinez are each facing several charges, including conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, resulting in death and transportation of illegal aliens. If convicted of those charges, Zamorano and Martinez could face a maximum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty. It will be up to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to decide whether federal prosecutors seek the death penalty.
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), after the tractor trailer was discovered, San Antonio Police found Zamorano hiding with the victims, where he pretended to be an injured migrant. A search of his cell phone after his arrest revealed conversations between Zamorano and Martinez about the smuggling area. Border Patrol even provided Homeland Security investigators with a video of Zamorano driving the semitruck through a checkpoint.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Amanda Brown, Sarah Spears and Jose Luis Acosta will be prosecuting the case.
Craig Larrabee, acting special agent in charge of ICE's investigative arm, noted this was the "greatest recorded loss of human life" in a smuggling attempt in America, according to Reuters.
In a recent interview with the Austin Journal, Texas Public Policy Foundation Policy Scholar Selene Rodriguez said, "Human smuggling is the precursor of human trafficking." She added that people who conspire with smugglers to illegally cross the border rack up thousands of dollars of debt, which they're often forced to pay off with either labor or sexual exploitation.