(U.S. Customs and Border Protection)
NEW YORK - The Border Patrol agency says it is dealing with an increase in people being smuggled into the country in the back of tractor-trailers.
The latest incident happened on Monday on Interstate 35 outside of Laredo, Texas.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says a truck hauling a trailer, approached the I-35 checkpoint. During an immigration inspection, a security canine alerted agents to the rear of the trailer.
Agents opened it and found 54 people including two children, all illegally present in the United States. The people were from Mexico, Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. All 54 and the driver and a passenger, both U.S. citizens, were taken into custody.
102 people have been discovered hidden within tractor-trailers at the I-35 checkpoint in the past six days.
In another incident near Laredo on April 30, 36 people were found being smuggled into the U.S. inside a sealed tractor-trailer.
Border Patrol agents in California also report a spike in smugglers attempting to use tractor-trailers to sneak people into the U.S. In March, agents discovered 42 smuggled immigrants packed inside of a utility trailer near the border in Calexico. Additionally, there were two similar smuggling events that occurred in January and February of this year.