Mexican Authorities Find Dozens Of Migrants Trapped In Trailer

Authorities rescued 123 migrants in a trailer in central Mexico, the country’s immigration agency, INM, said Thursday.

The trailer was found in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosí carrying 34 children and 89 adults from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador and Cuba, INM said. Two caravans of migrants are heading to the U.S. from Mexico.

INM said Thursday that it assisted vulnerable members of a migrant caravan, including families and children, with obtaining shelter.

Illegal immigration to the U.S. has increased in recent years to record levels. In fiscal year 2022, Border Patrol patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border saw more than 2.2 million encounters, marking the highest on record, according to federal data.

The following fiscal year also topped 2 million encounters, according to the federal data.

In June 2022, authorities in San Antonio, Texas, discovered a tractor trailer packed with migrants being smuggled into the U.S. interior. Of the migrants trapped in the tractor trailer, 53 died in the extreme heat and crowded conditions.

“The people were yelling, some cried. Mostly women were calling for it to stop and to open the doors because it was hot, that they couldn’t breathe,” survivor Yenifer Yulisa Cardona Tomás, 20, told The Associated Press after being intubated in the hospital.