Authorities find migrants padlocked inside U-Haul with little airflow: 'Stark reminder'

By Samantha Kamman, Christian Post Reporter Friday, January 10, 2025

An illegal migrant man crosses through the banks of the Rio Grande to be processed by the Border Patrol El Paso Sector, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on May 10, 2023. | HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images

One man is facing human smuggling charges after authorities found 11 migrants padlocked inside the rear compartment of a U-Haul truck with limited airflow in New Mexico.

Authorities discovered the migrants in the back of the rented truck close to midnight on New Year's Eve in Hurley, New Mexico, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told KTSM.

The suspect facing human smuggling charges had a Mexican driver's license, the outlet reported. All of the migrants, including a 12th one who sat up front, are being processed under Title 8, which encompasses laws concerning "Aliens And Nationality."

The migrants reportedly came from various countries, including Guatemala, Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras.

The police department in Hurley contacted Border Patrol for assistance with the situation.

According to a Tuesday social media post by El Paso Sector Border Patrol Chief Anthony Scot Good, Deming Border Patrol agents worked alongside the Hurley Fire Department to uncover the migrants inside the U-Haul truck.

Good described the case as "a stark reminder of the lengths smugglers will take to evade detection and endanger lives!"

U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to The Christian Post's request for comment.

At the time of reporting, the driver's motive for smuggling the migrants is unknown. In other cases involving American teenagers, law enforcement officials cited money as the reason why the teens took part in a human smuggling operation.

As Craig Larabee, special agent in charge of Homeland Security San Antonio in Texas, told KENS in May, transnational criminal organizations actively recruit teenagers to smuggle illegal immigrants. The groups will post advertisements on social media that make the smuggling job appear like an easy way to earn money.

"It's just money. It's just money, and you'll see the ads. They'll make a thousand dollars, $5,000 for one drive," Larabee said. "It's big wads of cash money. ... Make your money, come get your money."

Two Dallas teenagers were arrested for human smuggling in November 2023 after a cartel offered to pay them $1,300 for each person they smuggled, NewsNation reported.

One of the teenagers, Jonathan Rodriguez, who said he saw an advertisement for the human smuggling job on social media, was charged as an adult.

Authorities caught Rodriguez and his friend after the pair were pulled over for running a stop sign. Rodriguez said that this was the first time he had attempted to smuggle someone across the border and that he regretted his actions.

Another human smuggling case that made headlines last year involved a federal contractor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement using her position to attempt to smuggle over 30 adult migrants through Texas.

The federal contractor, Nancy Berenice Fernandez Luna, 35, once worked with MVM Inc., a company that provides transportation services, with the Office of Refugee Resettlement and ICE among its customers.

Border Patrol arrested Fernandez after she tried to sneak a bus full of migrants through a checkpoint. When the federal contractor arrived at the Border Patrol checkpoint, she presented agents with her "ICE personal identification verification (PIV) contracting card."

Fernandez also lied to the agents, telling them that she was transporting migrant children who had tested positive for COVID-19.

While the agents called the Rio Grande Valley Centralized Processing Center to verify the contractor's claims, the charter bus proceeded to a secondary inspection. During the secondary inspection, the Border Patrol agents discovered that the bus was transporting 39 adult migrants, not children with COVID-19. The migrants admitted that they were in the United States illegally.

In addition to Fernandez, Border Patrol arrested Juan Torres Ayala, who picked up the charter bus. Ayala confessed that he knew the migrants on the bus were in the United States illegally and that he had been promised $1,800 for making the trip.

Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman