A woman who accompanied the truck driver with more than 70 immigrants packed in the unvented trailer was arrested in Cleveland, Ohio, and four more people have been charged in a related case at McAllen in South Texas, according to U.S. Attorney Michael Shelby.
Nineteen people died after being sealed in the unvented trailer for a four-hour drive from Harlingen near the border to Victoria, which is about 120 miles southwest of Houston. Officials say it may be the largest loss of life ever associated with the human smuggling racket on the border.
"As these recent arrests confirm, immigrant smuggling is a nationwide problem," Shelby said. "We are determined to identify and hold accountable everyone associated with this tragedy; wherever they may be found."
At least 53 immigrants from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras survived and some of them may be witnesses in the federal trials. They will not be charged but decisions on their future U.S. status are pending.
Tyrone Williams, the 32-year-old Schenectady, N.Y., truck driver, was arrested in Houston within hours of the discovery of the trailer last Wednesday. Alleged accomplice Fatima Holloway, 28, turned herself into authorities on Friday and she was scheduled to make an initial appearance Monday in Ohio. Two men are also being sought.
Williams was initially charged with transporting and harboring illegal immigrants but the charges have been amended to include more serious allegations of transporting undocumented immigrants for financial gain and placing their lives in jeopardy. A conviction could carry a 20-year sentence for each alien.
In McAllen, criminal charges have been filed against four more people who were allegedly involved in the smuggling ring.
Victor Rodriguez, 55, and Emma Rodriguez, 57, harbored some of the undocumented immigrants in homes at Brownsville before they were loaded into the trailer, according to the complaint. Some of them were allegedly transported in a car registered to Emma Rodriguez to the trailer for the ill-fated trip north. They are still at large.
Juan Cisneros, 22, and Erica Cardenas, 23, were arrested after they allegedly held the 3-year-old child of one of the undocumented alien's for ransom. The child was safely recovered at a mall in McAllen after Cisneros accepted $300 of $1,300 to $1,500 demanded from an undercover agent. They appeared in court Monday afternoon.
Thirteen of the 19 victims have been identified through the work of the Mexican consul general and arrangements have been made for the return of the bodies to their families by the end of the week. Six bodies have not been identified by officials and they are appealing on both sides of the border for the public's help.
Anyone having reason to believe that a family member or friend might have been one of the persons aboard the trailer May 14 should call (800) 243-9960 or contact their local consulate office. Anyone having information on the fugitives is also urged to phone the same phone number.
More illegal immigrants have been rescued from trucks and rail cars since the deadly incident last week at Victoria but U.S. and Mexican officials are warning there may be more incidents as the hot summer approaches.
Apprehensions are down along the 2,000-mile border with Mexico this year but some experts say increased pressure from border patrol agents has forced both immigrants and smugglers to take more desperate measures.
"When the border patrol closes down the more popular sites - which are usually around the urban centers - then the migrants and smugglers start going around those checkpoints and doing all kinds of things to hide people," said Nestor Rodriguez, co-director of the Center for Immigration Research at the University of Houston.
Most of those entering the United States illegally are trying to make money to send back to their families. Visas to legal work are few so they resort to illegal means and deadly passages.
"They jump into the back of those trailers, they pay a smuggler $1,000 or $2,000, or they try to walk through a desert and wind up the same way," he told United Press International. "It's a kind of economic desperation."
Since 1997, more than 1,000 people have died trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican border. Most of them, about 600, died in the oppressive heat of the desert or drowned in the tricky currents of the winding Rio Grande.
Rodriguez, who has studied deadly border crossings for eight years, said there is no 100 percent solution to the dangerous migration that draws 3 million illegal immigrants across the border each year.
"I don't think it's about opening up the border up to everyone to just jump over," he said.
Rodriguez said the United States must determine how much migrant labor is being used and then set up a system that allows those migrants to safely enter with proper papers. A bracero program was used years ago but many of the Mexican workers alleged they were cheated out of their wages.
President Bush and Mexican President Vicente Fox were in discussions about a possible work permit program and some kind of amnesty for those already in the United States before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Those talks have taken a backseat to the war on terrorism and little progress has been reported.
Copyright 2003 by United Press International.
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