They perished in the stifling Texas heat, some scraping against the walls of the locked tractor-trailer that had brought them to San Antonio. In total, 53 people died and 11 were injured in what was dubbed the deadliest known human smuggling attempt in US history.
Two smugglers were sentenced last year. Another man, Rigoberto Ramon Mirando-Orozco, has now been sentenced to 30 years in prison for his involvement in the June 2022 event.
“These smugglers value profits over people, and their disregard for the risks or dangerous conditions in which they carry out their schemes too often results in tragic consequences,” A. Tysen Duva, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s criminal division, said in a news release announcing the sentence.
According to court filings, Miranda-Orozco, 39, collaborated with other people smugglers to transport and accommodate dozens of illegal immigrants from Guatemala to the United States via Mexico.
The tractor-trailer containing the 64 immigrants was discovered on June 27, 2022, after traveling 156 miles from outside Laredo without functioning air conditioning. According to sources, the migrants were inside the tractor-trailer as it passed through a Border Patrol checkpoint 26 miles northeast of the border city.
The truck proceeded approximately 100 miles north before being abandoned in a secluded neighborhood of San Antonio. Court filings indicate that temperatures in the trailer reached triple digits, resulting in uncomfortable and chaotic situations. “Some aliens screamed and banged on the walls for assistance,” the records stated. “Some people passed out, unconscious. Others clawed at the sides of the trailer, hoping to escape.”
Four dozen people were pronounced dead at the site, while another five died after being hospitalized. Among the fatalities were half a dozen youngsters and a pregnant woman.
Miranda-Orozco had two clients who died and another who was seriously injured but survived after “a lengthy hospital stay,” according to the records.
Miranda-Orozco was apprehended in Guatemala in August 2024 as part of “a large-scale takedown” in which Guatemalan law enforcement executed various search and arrest warrants around the country. He was extradited to the United States in March 2025.
On July 2, he pled guilty to conspiring to bring an illegal immigrant into the United States, resulting in death, as well as aiding and abetting the conduct of bringing an illegal immigrant into the United States, resulting in serious harm and death.
“This sentencing delivers a measure of accountability for a tragedy that claimed 53 lives and devastated multiple families,” said John A. Condon, acting executive associate director of Homeland Security Investigations. “Miranda-Orozco and his co-conspirators treated human lives as cargo, knowingly placing vulnerable people in lethal conditions to advance their criminal enterprise.”
Two additional individuals, Felipe Orduña-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, were convicted in June 2025 for their involvement in the operation. Federal prosecutors sentenced Orduña-Torres, 30, a leader and organizer, to life in prison, and Gonzales-Ortega, 55, a coordinator, to 83 years. Both faced $250,000 fines.
Prosecutors claim Orduña-Torres and other smugglers were aware of the trailer’s failing air conditioning unit, which did not provide cool air to the migrants inside.
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