A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Guatemalan man extradited to the US over his role in a 2022 human smuggling attempt that ended in the deaths of 53 migrants who had been transported in a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas, the AP reports. US and Guatemalan prosecutors called Rigoberto Ramon Miranda Orozco's sentencing another step toward justice in one of the deadliest smuggling attempts along the US-Mexico border. Miranda Orozco, 50, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after admitting to arranging travel and accommodations for two people who died and another who was seriously injured.
Nearly 20 people in the US and Guatemala have been convicted since the discovery of the abandoned trailer full of bodies horrified communities accustomed to seeing their young people leave, trying to flee poverty or violence in Central America and Mexico. "It was clear that they suffered tremendously in their last few hours on this earth," US Attorney Justin Simmons told reporters at a news conference following the sentencing.The trailer's air conditioning malfunctioned and would not blow cool air to the people trapped inside during the sweltering, three-hour ride in June 2022 from the border city of Laredo to San Antonio, authorities said. Prosecutors have said migrants paid up to $15,000 each to be taken across the US border.
Miranda Orozco's attorney, Alfonso Cabanas Jr., called the sentence "very tough." He said his client was in Guatemala at the time and had no control over the type of transportation the migrants would take to San Antonio nor did he know the air conditioning was malfunctioning. Cabanas said he doesn't think harsh punishments will "make a dent" in such operations. "What we do need is comprehensive immigration reform," Cabanas said. Sentencing dates have been set for more people, including the truck's driver.
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