They perished in the stifling Texas heat, some scraping at the walls of the locked tractor-trailer in which they’d been transported to San Antonio. In all, 53 would die, with 11 more injured in what would be called the deadliest known human smuggling attempt in U.S. history.
Two smugglers were sentenced last year. Now, another man, Rigoberto Ramon Mirando-Orozco, is answering for his role in the June 2022 incident, receiving a 30-year prison term.
“These smugglers value profits over people, and their disregard of the risks or dangerous conditions in which they carry out their schemes too often result 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 documents, Miranda-Orozco, 39, conspired with other human smugglers to arrange the transport and accommodation of dozens of illegal immigrants from Guatemala to the United States through Mexico.
The tractor-trailer in which the 64 immigrants were in was found on June 27, 2022, having traveled 156 miles from outside Laredo without functioning air conditioning. Sources said the migrants were in the tractor-trailer when it cleared a Border Patrol checkpoint 26 miles northeast of the border city.
The truck traveled about a hundred miles north before being abandoned in a remote area of San Antonio. According to court documents, temperatures during the journey eclipsed triple digits, causing unbearable and chaotic conditions inside the trailer.
"Some aliens screamed and banged on the walls for help," the documents said. "Some passed out, unconscious. Others clawed at the sides of the trailer attempting to escape.”
Four dozen were pronounced dead at the scene, while another five died after being hospitalized. Among the dead were half a dozen juveniles and a mother-to-be.
Two who died were clients of Miranda-Orozco, while another client suffered serious injury but survived after “a lengthy hospital stay,” according to the documents.
Miranda-Orozco was arrested in Guatemala in August 2024 as part of “a large-scale takedown” in which Guatemalan law enforcement executed multiple search and arrests warrants across the country. He was extradited to the U.S. in March 2025.
He pleaded guilty on July 2 to conspiracy to bring an illegal immigrant into the U.S. resulting in death, as well as aiding and abetting the act of bringing an illegal immigrant into the U.S. resulting in both serious injury and death.
A defense attorney for Miranda-Orozco did not immediately return a request for comment.
“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 (HSI). “Miranda-Orozco and his co-conspirators treated human lives as cargo, knowingly placing vulnerable people in lethal conditions to advance their criminal enterprise.”
Two other men, Felipe Orduña-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega, were sentenced in June 2025 for their role in the operation. Orduña-Torres, 30, who federal prosecutors identified as a leader and organizer, received a life sentence, while Gonzales-Ortega, 55, identified as a coordinator, got 83 years. Both received $250,000 fines.
Prosecutors said some of the smugglers, including Orduña-Torres, knew the trailer’s air conditioning unit was malfunctioning and not blowing any cool air to the migrants inside.
Contributing: Amanda Lee Myers, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Man gets 30 years for deadly human smuggling operation in Texas
