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Jury selection begins on Monday in the federal trial of two people accused of involvement in a June 2022 immigrant smuggling incident in San Antonio.
Felipe Orduña-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega are charged with conspiracy to transport illegal migrants resulting in death.
Fifty-three immigrants died after being trapped inside a sweltering tractor-trailer. It was the deadliest human smuggling attempt in modern U.S. history. Eleven others were injured.
Dozens of men, women and children from Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and other nations were found trapped in the tractor-trailer on Quintana Road in southwest San Antonio.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at the time that a worker at a nearby facility heard a person crying for help and found the trailer with numerous dead inside.
San Antonino Fire Chief Charles Hood said they were hot to the touch and suffering from heat exhaustion. “No signs of water in the vehicle, it was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig,” he added. Temperatures in San Antonio at the time regularly exceeded 100 degrees.
Four other defendants — including the driver of the tractor-trailer — have pleaded guilty.
Guatemalan police announced in August 2024 that they arrested seven people in connection to the incident. Guatemala's interior minister posted on social media that the arrests included the alleged ringleader of the smuggling group, "Los Orozcos."
Federal prosecutors say Rigoberto Miranda Orozco allegedly secured payment from Guatemalan migrants and worked with co-conspirators to smuggle them out of the country.
A memorial of painted crosses was erected alongside Quintana Road to remember the 53 lives lost, next to a mural that listed the victims' names.
Since the incident, dozens more people have been found trapped in similar predicaments — tractor trailers, train cars or other vehicles — and almost all also dealing with severe and life-threatening heat.
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