Immediately, border officials and Texan police officers pry open wooden boxes to discover them full of migrants
- Border patrol agents and state troopers discovered 21 migrants hidden in two wooden boxes on April 6
- The footage shows the agents and police officers working together to remove the wooden planks using power drills and metal rods
- The driver of a pickup truck who stopped a pickup truck carrying the boxes was arrested along with a passenger
- Both men face human smuggling charges, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety
This is the surreal moment 21 migrants were found hidden in two wooden crates during a traffic stop in Texas.
The shocking results came on April 6, when state police and US Border Patrol agents stopped a pickup truck and disrupted an attempt to smuggle people in Laredo.
Footage released by the Texas Department of Public Safety showed the driver and a passenger, including one who was already handcuffed, being questioned before state troopers and border officials inspected the cargo strapped to a flatbed.
A Texas state police officer used a metal bar to remove wood from one of the two boxes used by smugglers to carry 21 migrants on April 6
The 21 migrants were split into two wooden boxes being transported in Laredo, Texas by a driver with ties to a gang, the Texas Department of Public Safety said
Two wooden crates were loaded onto a trailer being pulled by a pickup truck that was stopped on a street in Laredo, Texas on April 6. Crates
A cellphone video taken by a police officer or border guard and uploaded to social media showed a police office removing a wooden board that served as the box’s top cover while border guards removed the screws with their drills.
They were able to remove the lid of one of the boxes with a drill before spotting the migrants sitting next to each other.
Two suspects were arrested by state troopers and border patrol agents on April 6 in a smuggling incident in Laredo, Texas that ended with the discovery of 21 migrants hidden in two wooden boxes. According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, one of the two suspects was a member of a gang
One of the people was heard asking for water in Spanish.
“We’ll give you water later,” a border guard or state police officer replied.
The driver and passenger were arrested for people smuggling.
has reached out to the Texas Department of Public Safety for comment.
Texas State Troopers and US Border Patrol agents interrupted a smuggling attempt in Laredo on April 6 and found 21 migrants in two large wooden boxes
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s latest monthly report on the southwestern border, U.S. Border Patrol agents saw a 33 percent increase in interdictions involving migrants along the border last month to 221,803 encounters, after 164,973 were reported in February.
The March totals also marked the highest number of bans under President Joe Biden’s administration since July 2021, when 213,593 bans were imposed.
Since October 1, 2001 – the start of fiscal year 2022 – border officials have registered 1,060,954 incidents involving migrants. CBP documented 164,847 bans in October; 174,846 in November; and ended December with 179,252 incidents.
Encounters eased in January when 154,812 were reported before rising to 165,894 in February.
Fiscal year totals are expected to exceed fiscal 2021, when 1,734,686 bans were imposed.
The agency expects perhaps as many as 500,000 encounters a month as the Biden administration repeals Title 42 — a Trump-era law aimed at immediately deporting migrants to protect the United States from COVID-19.
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