Mexican Federal Police discovered 137 undocumented immigrants in a trailer in Tamaulipas
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The agents found 95 Hondurans, 37 Guatemalans, four Salvadorans and one Ecuadorean crowded in the vehicle, according to a local media report. According to reports, police found the migrants “in conditions of overcrowding inside a closed box, which put them at risk of their physical integrity.”
The driver of the trailer was arrested by authorities while custody of the vehicle and the undocumented immigrants turned over to the Attorney General's Office for “corresponding procedures and investigations,” Tamaulipas authorities said.
The undocumented immigrants were being transported along the Zaragoza highway to Ciudad Victoria in the northern Mexican state when the federal agents intercepted the trailer.
"It's a very complex issue, because it was simply abandoned many years ago, and today this government is paying attention to it," Secretary-General of the State Government, César Augusto Verastegui told EFE about beefing up security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The government official added that “there are a lot of people trying to cross through Tamaulipas,” from the central and southern regions of Mexico. Verastegui said security is heavily focused on in the more troublesome regions of Veracruz, San Luis Potosi and Nuevo Leon.
Mexican authorities expressed concern over the increase in undocumented persons from Central America who are using Mexican territories to enter the United States illegally. The Ministry of Interior disclosed that the number of people trying to cross the bordered has gone up.
Thousands of undocumented immigrants attempt the dangerous journey across Mexico to the United States. The travelers are often subjected to robberies, extortions, kidnappings and even murders by criminal gangs or abused by border authorities.