Heroic Border Patrol agents rescue overheated migrants locked inside U-Haul without oxygen

Border Patrol agents rescued 13 undocumented migrants that were locked inside of a U-Haul truck without oxygen, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced on Friday.

El Paso Sector officials said the migrants were being smuggled inside of the box truck that had no access to oxygen and was locked, preventing them from getting out.

The migrants were all identified as Mexican nationals. They were uninjured and did not need medical attention.

The migrants were previously expelled from the country under Title 42, a Trump administration era policy that allows border agents to turn away migrants at the border while their asylum cases are pending, a policy that was designed  to prevent the further spread of COVID-19 throughout the country. 

The driver of the truck is expected face charges for conspiracy to transport.

This recent encounter comes less than two months after 53 migrants were found dead inside an abandoned tractor-trailer truck near San Antonio. The migrants died from exhaustion and overheating inside the truck, which had no air conditioning. The victims were "hot to the touch."

Last month, Mexican authorities stopped a large truck that was attempting to smuggle over 150 migrants. The migrants were crammed into the large truck and were exposed to dangerously high temperatures.

The El Paso Sector has seen an average of approximately 1,500 daily migrant encounters, many of them from the countries of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Colombia.

“Despite having to manage a migrant influx of humanitarian nature in one specific area, our Border Patrol Agents remain steadfast in maintaining our immigration checkpoints operational and being able to secure other border areas of the El Paso Sector. I am truly proud of the invaluable work El Paso Sector Border Patrol Agents do each and every day in our West Texas and New Mexico region,” said El Paso Sector Chief Patrol Agent Gloria Chavez.