The tractor-trailer at the center of a people-smuggling attempt that left 53 dead had passed through a US Border Patrol checkpoint with migrants inside the suffocating platform earlier in its journey, a US official said on Monday. Thursday.
The truck passed through the Interstate 35 checkpoint located 26 miles (42 kilometers) northeast of the border city of Laredo, Texas.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said there were 73 people in the truck when it was discovered Monday in San Antonio, including the 53 who died. It was unclear if officers stopped the driver for questioning at the interior checkpoint or if the truck passed unimpeded.
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The disclosure brings new attention to a longstanding political question of whether the roughly 110 interior highway checkpoints along the Mexican and Canadian borders are effective enough to detect people in cars and trucks entering the United States illegally. They are usually located up to 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the border.
The Texas State Police also announced it would operate its own inland checkpoints for tractor-trailers at the direction of Gov. Greg Abbott, who sees the Biden administration’s efforts as insufficient. It was unclear how many trucks they would stop.
Also Thursday, Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, the suspected tractor-trailer driver, made his initial appearance in federal court in San Antonio. During a hearing that lasted about five minutes, Zamorano, dressed in a white T-shirt and gray sweatpants, said very little, answering yes and no to federal judge Elizabeth Chestney’s questions about his rights and the charges against him.
The judge appointed a federal public defender for Zamorano, as well as a second attorney, since the smuggling charge he faces carries a possible death penalty. She has scheduled a hearing next week to determine if he is eligible for bond.
The US Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that Border Patrol agents can stop vehicles at inland checkpoints for brief questioning without a warrant, even if there is no reason to believe they are illegally transporting people into the country . Still, the practice has galvanized immigration advocates and civil liberties advocates who view the checkpoints as ripe for racial profiling and abuse of authority. Some motorists post videos on social media accusing officers of heavy-handed and inappropriate questioning.
The Laredo-area checkpoint is on one of the busiest roads along the border, particularly for trucks, raising the possibility of stifling commerce and creating havoc if all motorists are stopped and questioned.
Border Patrol officers call checkpoints an imperfect but effective second line of defense after the border, acknowledging that agents must balance law enforcement interests with the disruption of legitimate trade and travel.
The volume and configuration vary widely between checkpoints, but agents typically have five to seven seconds to decide whether to question a driver, said Roy Villareal, former chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson, Arizona, sector.
“Ultimately, it’s very difficult to determine with crime in general. It is difficult to say if you are 100% effective, 50%, 10%”.
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U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, who passes through the checkpoint nearly every week, said investigators believe the migrants boarded the truck in or around Laredo, though that is unconfirmed. That would be consistent with smuggling patterns: Migrants cross the border on foot and hide in a house or in the bushes on US soil before being picked up and taken to the nearest major city.
Even if the truck were empty, it would raise questions about the checkpoints. Migrants often die trying to elude them, being dropped off before reaching them with plans to be picked up on the other side. In the Rio Grande Valley, the busiest corridor for illegal crossings, migrants trek through sweltering ranches to avoid a checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, about 70 miles (112 kilometers) north of the border.
The Government Accountability Office reported this month that agents at interior checkpoints apprehended about 35,700 people believed to be in the US illegally between fiscal years 2016 and 2020, only about 2% of all Border Patrol arrests. Agents seized drugs nearly 18,000 times during that period with more than nine of 10 arrests involving US citizens.
They have been a trap for US citizens who carry even small bags of marijuana. About 40% of marijuana seizures at Border Patrol checkpoints between fiscal years 2013 and 2016 were of one ounce (28 grams) or less from US citizens, according to an earlier GAO report.
Abbott did not provide details on the scope of the new Texas interior inspections announced Thursday. Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said soldiers would take a “more aggressive stance.” When asked if that meant stopping all the trucks, Oliverez said he didn’t know and that some of it would depend on staffing.
“It’s going to be inspecting more than we normally inspect,” Olivarez said.
In April, Abbott brought the Texas border to a standstill for a week after issuing orders that troops inspect all tractor trailers entering from Mexico as part of his ongoing fight with the Biden administration over immigration policy. Those inspections, which were mechanical and security, did not find migrants or drugs.
Spagat reported from San Diego. Paul Weber contributed from Austin, Texas.
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