The Texas Department of Public Safety arrested a driver who allegedly attempted to smuggle nearly 30 illegal aliens into the U.S. in a horse trailer that he was towing behind his truck.
DPS troopers reportedly pulled over a Ford F-250 towing the horse trailer on US-281 in Hidalgo County. The driver, Jose Guadalupe Salinas, from Palmview, Texas, reportedly consented to a DPS officer conducting a search of the vehicle, according to Texas Scorecard.
DPS spokesperson Chris Olivarez detailed the findings of the search, writing in an X post that DPS troopers “discovered 27 illegal immigrants crammed inside a storage area, distressed and sweating profusely.”
“Three females were severely dehydrated and required medical attention due to extreme heat and no ventilation,” Olivarez added in the post.
The illegal aliens were handed over to U.S. Border Patrol, and Salinas was taken into custody. He will be charged with the smuggling of persons, per Olivarez.
This incident comes as the U.S. continues to deal with a crisis along the southern border caused by an increasing number of illegal crossings. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported more than 8.1 million encounters with illegal aliens since President Joe Biden took office in 2021.
Texas has taken multiple steps in the past to manage the number of illegal crossings, but lawsuits by the U.S. Department of Justice have made the management of this crisis increasingly difficult.
The Lone Star State is currently embroiled in legal battles regarding a floating barrier in the Rio Grande and a state border security law that makes illegally entering the state a crime.
Despite dealing with pushback from the federal government, Gov. Greg Abbott has continued to say that he will do everything he can to secure the Texas border from illegal aliens.
Another step that Abbott has taken to manage this crisis is the transport of illegal aliens to sanctuary cities across the country, with the governor writing in a Twitter post that the state has relocated more than 117,000 people.