Toll Rises in Texas Smuggling Case; Arrests in Other Incidents

The death toll from this week’s botched smuggling attempt reached 19 on Friday when an immigrant died at a hospital, two days after being pulled out of a stifling tractor-trailer at a truck stop south of Victoria, Texas.

Details were not released on the victim who died at DeTar Hospital Navarro in Victoria, southwest of Houston. The toll is thought to be the deadliest in recent U.S. smuggling cases.

Also Friday, 18 suspected illegal immigrants were found alive in a tractor-trailer at a truck stop not far from where the other victims were found. None required hospitalization. They were turned over to immigration authorities and the truck driver was taken into custody.

Also Friday, authorities in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land found 10 illegal immigrants under a sheet of plywood in the 5-by-8-foot bed of a pickup truck. Police said the men had not eaten or had water for two days. The driver was arrested.

And the Border Patrol said it rescued 17 suspected immigrants from a railroad container car Thursday near the Texas-New Mexico line.