By Zoila Palma: A Guatemalan man has been sentenced to 30 years in prison in the United States for his role in a 2022 human smuggling operation that resulted in the deaths of 53 migrants inside a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas.
According to CNN, Rigoberto Román Miranda-Orozco, 39, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to charges related to arranging travel and accommodations for two migrants who died and another who suffered serious injuries.
The tragedy occurred in June 2022, when migrants were transported in a tractor-trailer from Laredo, near the U.S.-Mexico border, to San Antonio. Authorities said the truck’s air conditioning failed during the approximately three-hour journey, leaving those trapped inside exposed to extreme heat.
When the abandoned trailer was discovered on a remote road in San Antonio, 48 people were already dead, while 16 others were taken to hospitals, where five later died. Prosecutors said migrants had paid as much as US$15,000 each to be smuggled across the border.
U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons said investigators found clothing discarded by passengers attempting to cool themselves and claw marks on the trailer’s walls, indicating their desperate efforts to escape. He said the migrants endured tremendous suffering during their final hours. Twenty-one of those who died were from Guatemala, according to prosecutors, while authorities in both the United States and Guatemala have worked to bring those responsible to justice.
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