A Texan from the U.S.-Mexico border city of Laredo has been charged in federal court with smuggling undocumented noncitizens after authorities found him in a stolen truck full of migrants, a local newspaper reported.
Joseph Bridges was charged with importing and harboring undocumented persons, according to court documents filed with the Laredo Morning Newspaper and filed in the U.S. District Court for Southern Texas in Laredo.
Bridges was arrested on August 19 while driving a stolen semi-trailer in Encinal, Texas, about 40 miles northeast of Laredo on Interstate 35, which leads to San Antonio.
John Moore/AP
A U.S. Border Patrol agent stopped the white Freightliner tractor pulling a dump trailer after noticing that a temporary license plate was attached upside down to the tractor’s windshield. Laredo Morning Newspaper.
Bridges initially told officers the trailer was empty, but then a sniffer dog unit was called to the scene, alerting officers to the presence of narcotics or people in the truck. While searching the sleeping area of the truck, officers discovered 23 migrants, including an unaccompanied minor, according to the newspaper.
A date for the hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Matt York/AP
Previously, the US Border Patrol found eleven illegal migrants in a trailer in early August, reported the Laredo television station KGNS-TV. The driver did not allow the authorities to search the vehicle.
A police officer then ordered a border guard to use a dog to search. The officer found eleven people trying to hide in the sleeping area of the trailer.
As KGNS reported, all eleven people were in the country illegally.
The group of migrants was taken into custody and handed over to US border control, and the driver was arrested for human smuggling.
In July, the U.S. Border Patrol rescued 17 migrants trapped in a semi-trailer on a Texas highway.
Human smuggling in Texas refers to the illegal transport of people across the border into the United States for profit. It is often carried out by gangs who smuggle people in vehicles, boats, or even on foot through remote areas of the border.
Human smuggling is a third-degree felony in Texas and is punishable by two to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
If the smuggled person is seriously injured or dies, it is a second-degree felony.
Mary Kapron, researcher at Amnesty International, said Newsweek“We need real solutions that respect human rights, address the root causes of forced migration, provide safe and orderly pathways to safety, and meet the needs of communities along the border and in the interior of the United States.
“All people have the universal human right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution and serious human rights violations. All people also have the right not to be returned to a place where their life or freedom would be endangered or where they would be at risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, regardless of their migration status.”
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