MCALLEN, TX - AUGUST 07: U.S. Border Patrol agents detain undocumented immigrants after they crossed the border from Mexico into the United States on August 7, 2015 in McAllen, Texas. The state's Rio Grande Valley corridor is the busiest illegal border crossing into the United States. Border security and immigration have become major issues in the U.S. presidential campaigns. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) (2015 Getty Images)
MOORE, Texas – Authorities found 37 undocumented immigrants locked inside a sweltering 18-wheeler parked at a truck stop south of San Antonio.
The San Antonio Express News reported that the Frio County Sheriff’s Office found the truck Friday afternoon after responding to a call about people trapped inside a tractor-trailer near a gas station at Highway 57 and Interstate 35.
“We checked the trailer of the truck and we noticed a small little door on the back of the trailer and there were hands sticking out trying to open up the door,” Sergeant Jerry Reyna of the Frio County Sheriff’s Office told KSAT 12.
Deputies found 37 people inside the truck.
Border Patrol agents from the Laredo sector helped detain those who had been in the trailer. KSAT 12 reported that multiple emergency medical service units arrived to assist.
The undocumented immigrants were reportedly in various stages of heat exhaustion and dehydration. They told officials they had been stuck inside the truck for at least four to five hours.
“They were real sweaty, dehydrated, heat exhaustion,” Reyna said. “Some of them we had to literally drag out of the back of the trailer because they couldn't walk for themselves.”
He added: “Some of them said they were picked up and loaded in Laredo and the driver said he was just hired to pick up the truck and drive it unknown to what destination.”
The unidentified truck driver was taken into custody, however an investigation is underway by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
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