Mexican authorities said Sunday they found more than 250 migrants inside a double-trailer truck bound for the U.S. border.
Immigration agents supported by military personnel discovered the transport on Friday at a checkpoint in Chihuahua state, the Defense Ministry said.
The migrants, of various nationalities, were transferred to immigration facilities to review their status while the driver was handed over to the prosecutor’s office, the ministry added.
Thousands of migrants fleeing violence and poverty travel through Mexico each year to the U.S. border.
Transporting migrants hidden in overcrowded trucks is one of the most dangerous methods used by human traffickers.
In 2022, more than 50 migrants suffocated to death after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer that crossed the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas.
Others choose to join caravans on foot, enduring hunger, exhaustion and insecurity over enormous distances.
The recent election of Donald Trump as U.S. president has fueled concerns among migrants that it will be increasingly difficult to obtain asylum after Trump takes office.
The number of U.S. Border Patrol encounters with migrants crossing illegally from Mexico fell to about 54,000 in September, from a peak of nearly 250,000 in December, according to the U.S. government.
The drop in numbers comes after President Joe Biden issued an order in June to close the border to asylum seekers after a certain daily limit.
Source: eleconomista
