SAN ANTONIO — According to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), nearly 500 migrants were rescued from tractor-trailers, train cars and box trucks traveling across Texas since 53 non-citizens were found dead in a tractor trailer on Quintana Road last year.
KENS 5 obtained a new Department of Homeland Security report through an open records request. It shows 16 additional instances in which migrants were rescued from trailers in our state.
According to the report, instances involving these migrant rescues include vehicles like tractor-trailers, box cars, train cars and cloned cars, which is when a vehicle is either made to appear as another registered car or given stolen plates.
ICE reported that Laredo and El Paso were two of the most common places for these busts to happen, though they generally happed across our state, as well as neighboring states like New Mexico.
Officials say 472 migrants had been found by officials in tractor-trailers, box trucks and trains since June 27, 2022. That number does not include busts at human-smuggling stash houses, land crossings or busts involving boats.
Nearly a month after the Quintana Road bust, 91 migrants were found in a tractor-trailer in Laredo. About three months later, according to the report, another 87 migrants were found in tractor-trailer in Corpus Christi.
Immigrant rights advocates and DHS have also maintained the dangers of crossing into the country as a year-round issue. Busts ranged from the summer and springtime into early December and late January.
At the time of the Quintana Road incident, KENS 5 reported that 48 bodies were found inside the trailer and 16 people who were inside had been taken to San Antonio-area hospitals. That death toll rose to 53 in the following days. All succumbed to heat-related illnesses inside the sweltering hot trailer.
The youngest victim inside the trailer was 13 and the oldest was 55.
The Quintana Road incident served as a reminder of the dangers of human smuggling to officials in San Antonio and Bexar County. San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood and Kimberley Molina, Bexar County’s chief medical examiner both spoke to KENS 5 one year following the migrant smuggling deaths on Quintana Road.
So far, four men have been arrested and charged in connection to the Quintana Road bust. The DOJ Identified two of the men as Homero Zamorano jr., 45, and Christian Martinez, 28. They both face life in prison or the death penalty.
Shortly after the semi-truck rescue on Quintana Road, officials arrested Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mende and Juan Francisco D’Lune-Bilbao, who were found at a home on Arnold Drive on San Antonio’s North Side where the tractor trailer was registered to. They were charged with being in possession of a firearm while in the country illegally and could face up to 10 years in prison.
>Read the full report from ICE below:
>TRENDING ON KENS 5 YOUTUBE: