Border Patrol Frees 88 Aliens From Locked Truck on Freeway

U.S. immigration officials here say that a tragedy may have been averted Wednesday when agents discovered 88 suspected illegal aliens locked inside a tractor trailer at a state weigh station along Interstate 5.

U.S. Border Patrol agents from the nearby immigration check point south of San Clemente broke the lock of the vehicle’s sealed trailer and released its occupants.

“The people (inside) were hollering and screaming once they heard someone outside,” said Gene Smithburg, a Border Patrol spokesman here.

Although a number of the occupants appeared to be suffering from heat exhaustion and had to be helped from the vehicle, Smithburg said no one was hospitalized.

Wednesday’s incident comes almost a week after 18 undocumented aliens were found suffocated inside a boxcar during an intense heat wave in West Texas.

The incident in San Diego--where temperatures Wednesday were in the 60s--was not immediately life-threatening, Smithburg acknowledged. But he noted that the potential for tragedy was there.

Throughout the border region, groups of undocumented aliens, often aided by smugglers, cram into boxcars, trucks and cars to avoid immigration authorities and reach jobs in Los Angeles and other U.S. interior regions.

On Tuesday, authorities here seized a tractor-trailer filled with 52 undocumented immigrants.

In Wednesday’s incident, the Border Patrol spokesman said, the tractor trailer stopped at the state scales shortly before 1 p.m. State officials became suspicious after noticing moisture seeping from the bottom of the vehicle.

When agents pounded on the vehicle’s sides, Smithburg said, they heard the screams of those inside and broke open the lock.

“The people were dripping in sweat,” Smithburg said.

All of the occupants were Mexican citizens, Smithburg said. All will likely be returned to Mexico.

Driver Roberto Perez Florez, 22, of Tijuana, will face federal smuggling charges, Smithburg said.