As business booms for people smugglers using trucks in Texas, risks grow

Experts say human smugglers are increasingly using 18-wheeler trucks to move large numbers of migrants

Months before dozens of migrants died inside a sweltering tractor-trailer this week that had slipped through a Border Patrol checkpoint on a Texas highway, another truck driver was making the same journey carrying 52 migrants, Qazet.az reports.

Roderick DeWayne Chisley was stopped on December 17, 2021, driving a stolen rig on the I-35 highway, which runs north from Laredo to San Antonio. According to court documents, Chisley said his payment for agreeing to drive the vehicle with no questions asked was $50,000.

Experts say human smugglers are increasingly using 18-wheeler trucks to move large numbers of migrants, and court records reviewed by Reuters - including from Chisley's case - offer a detailed look at how the process plays out.

Criminal organizations can take advantage of corruptible drivers, a growing volume of cargo traffic difficult to scan and a record number of migrants crossing into the United States, experts and U.S. officials said.