Sixty illegal immigrants who were comingled within a tractor holding produce were rescued by Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol Agents on Saturday.
Agents referred a tractor trailer driver to secondary inspection after a dog alerted officials to the people who were laying on and within pallets of broccoli.
Sixty illegal immigrants were discovered Saturday in a cold tractor carrying vegetables. (US Customs and Border Patrol)
The trailer's doors were secured with a padlock and the subjects had no means of escape. The trailer's temperature was 49 degrees Fahrenheit.
Medical attention was offered to the rescued aliens but all declined, officials said. They were transported to the Falfurrias Border Patrol Station and processed. The group consisted of 22 Guatemalans, 17 Mexicans, 13 Salvadorans and eight Hondurans.
The driver, a Guatemalan national, was arrested and is pending federal charges for alien smuggling.
Rio Grande Valley Sector Border Patrol urges immigrants against entrusting smugglers and warns against the dangers of crossing illegally into the U.S. through dangerous environmental conditions.
Sixty illegal immigrants were discovered Saturday in a cold tractor carrying vegetables. (US Customs and Border Patrol)
"Criminal activity like this will also lead to serious consequences for truck drivers who engage in smuggling," said RGV Sector Chief Patrol Agent Manuel Padilla Jr in a statement.
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