Authorities in Mexico took 1,266 United States-bound migrants into custody during a 24-hour period – including more than 100 who were trapped inside an abandoned tractor trailer.
The National Institute of Migration said the individuals were citizens of 33 countries and were unable to present legal travel documents in the 22 cities there were found Wednesday.
At least 165 of the individuals were identified as unaccompanied minors.
Footage of an operation showed the moment 59 migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and El Salvador were helped out of an open-air flatbed truck outfitted with makeshift covers of water tank.
The discovery took place in Allende, Nuevo León – approximately three hours south of the Mexico-United States border – after the driver was stopped for a routine inspection by police assigned to the northeastern state’s office of the attorney general.
Still image from a video release by Mexico’s National Institute of Migration reveals the moment 59 migrants were found Wednesday inside a flatbed truck in Allende, Nuevo León, almost three hours from the border with the United States. The group was among 1,266 individuals who were stopped from transiting to the U.S. border
100 migrants from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela were found trapped in a locked tractor trailer by the police and military near a highway toll booth in the Veracruz mountainside city of Cuitláhuac on Wednesday
Mexican authorities confiscated a truck that was outfitted with water tank covers to conceal 59 migrants who were being smuggled in Allende, Nuevo León, on Wednesday
The agents performed a secondary search of the truck after hearing voices coming from the flatbed area and detected the presence of the migrants, including 19 minors.
The driver and two companions were arrested. Charges are pending.
The National Institute of Migration also credited the state police and military with avoiding the tragedy of 100 migrants who were left inside a locked tractor trailer near a highway toll booth in the Veracruz mountainside city of Cuitláhuac.
The individuals were identified as residents of Guatemala, Nicaragua, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela.
In a separate incident, immigration agents pulled over a tour bus in Acajete, Puebla, with 120 migrants from Cuba, Guatemala and Honduras who were being smuggled to the Mexico-United States border.
Mexican military and police agents in the Veracruz mountainside city of Cuitláhuac located an abandoned truck on Wednesday and discovered 100 migrants locked inside
Authorities in Puebla, Mexico, impounded a truck that was used to smuggle 59 migrants who were attempting to reach the U.S. border. The driver and two individuals who were accompanying him were taken into custody
Flatbed of a truck stopped in Puebla, Mexico, on Wednesday. Mexican immigration officials says the vehicle was being used to conceal 59 migrants headed to the United States border
In total, the National Institute of Migration said it took into custody 303 migrants from Colombia, 268 from Honduras and 181 from Guatemala. There were also 143 individuals from Cuba and an additional 100 migrants from El Salvador.
The agency also detained migrants from Somalia, Canada, Russia, Pakistan, Switzerland, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, China, Turkey, Ghana, Italy and Armenia among other countries.
“The (National Institute of Migration) endorses its commitment to maintain safe, orderly and regular migration, with full respect and safeguarding the rights of people in transit through national territory,” the agency said in a statement.
According to government data, the National Institute of Migration took 16,740 undocumented migrants into custody in January in comparison with 9,406 who were stopped in January 2021.
At least 10,443 of the migrants were identified as Central and South American nationals while 6,297 were from Asia, Africa, Europe and Oceania.
