Two Sentenced Life Prison Deaths 53 Migrants Texas

Two men, Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Garcia, were sentenced to life imprisonment and 83 years respectively for their central roles in a human smuggling operation that led to the deaths of 53 migrants in an overheated tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022. The migrants, mostly from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, were crammed into a trailer with a broken air conditioning system during a sweltering summer trip from Laredo to San Antonio, resulting in suffocation and death. Each migrant paid smugglers between $12,000 and $15,000 for the journey. The court found that the smugglers knowingly endangered the migrants’ lives, with many passengers banging on the walls and passing out due to the extreme heat. The sentences were handed down three years after the tragedy, with additional conspirators scheduled for sentencing later, and one extradited from Guatemala awaiting trial. U.S. officials emphasized that these sentences send a strong message condemning human smuggling and holding perpetrators accountable.