Three unaccompanied underaged girls – aged four, eight and 17 – are among 10 migrants found hiding in pickup truck driven by teen, 19, smuggler near Arizona border with Mexico
- Three unaccompanied minors, aged four, eight and 17, were found locked in the flatbed of a pickup truck that was stopped by border patrol agents in Arizona
- U.S. Border Patrols officers with the Tucson Station ordered a 19-year-old American driver to stop the vehicle for a search in Sasabe last Friday
- The children and seven other adults – identified as citizens of Guatemala and Mexico – were taken into custody and processed
- The driver was arrested and is facing human smuggling charges, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection
Border patrol agents thwarted a human smuggling operation when they discovered 10 migrants, including three underaged girls, hiding under a stack of plywood covering the flatbed of a pickup truck driven by a teenager in Arizona.
Three girls – aged four, eight and 17 – were found crammed together along with seven adults during an inspection of the vehicle last Friday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed in a press release this week.
CBP said that agents assigned to the Tucson Station stopped a 2000 Dodge Ram on Highway 286 several miles north of the Sasabe Port of Entry in Sasabe, Arizona.
The U.S. Border Patrol officers noticed that the flatbed’s tailgate was shut close, ‘dangerously trapping the migrants on top of each other without means of escape.’
U.S. Customs and Border Protection revealed this week how border agents with the Tucson Station found 10 undocumented migrants, including three unaccompanied underaged girls, hidden the locked flatbed of a pickup truck that was stopped on a road in Sababe, Arizona, last Friday. The vehicle was driven by a 19-year-old U.S. citizen, who was arrested
A migrant steps out from under a pile of plywood that was covering the locked flatbed of a pickup truck where they were being concealed. None of the 10 migrants presented health issues
CBP said the 10 migrants were Guatemala and Mexican nationals. All were taken to a local border patrol station near Sababe, Arizona, where they were processed
CBP identified all three girls as unaccompanied children. It’s unknown if their parents are living in the United States.
The driver, a 19-year-old US citizen whose name was not released, was taken into custody. The suspect is facing human smuggling charges.
The migrants – Guatemalan and Mexico nationals – were detained and taken to the Tucson Coordination Center where they were processed.
Sabri Y. Dikman, the acting chief patrol agent of the U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, said that ‘luckily, no one was hurt.’
Tucson border agents stopped three groups who had crossed the United States-Mexico border on Saturday and Sunday, apprehending an additional 202 migrants the following two days in the rural desert area near Sababe.
At least half of the group consisted of minors who were traveling alone.
One of the three groups intercepted by U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Station on Saturday and Sunday in the desert area near Sasabe, Arizona
The arrests along the 1,954-mile southwestern border show that migrants continue to defy the administration of President Joe Biden, even after Vice President Kamala told Migrants them in June, ‘Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our borders.’
Despite the warning, data released by CBP in late October showed that U.S. Border Patrol agents reported 1.7 million encounters with migrants who unlawfully crossed the United States-Mexico border in fiscal year 2021, the highest since 1986.
Interdictions at the border increased during former President Donald Trump’s last eight full months in office and dramatically spiked in the following six full months of Biden term in the White House.
Encounters at the United States southwestern border increased in each of former President Donald Trump’s last eight months in office and continued to do so at a much higher rate in President Joe Biden’s first six months at the White House
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