Migrants who died in truck cleared Texas checkpoint

Alleged driver of the vehicle makes court appearance

SAN ANTONIO — The tractor-trailer at the center of a human-smuggling attempt that left 53 people dead had passed through an inland U. S. Border Patrol checkpoint with migrants inside the sweltering rig earlier in its journey, a U.S. official said Thursday.

The truck went through the checkpoint on Interstate 35 located 26 miles northeast of the border city of Laredo, Texas.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there were 73 people in the truck when it was discovered, including the 53 who died.

Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, the alleged driver of the tractor-trailer, made his initial appearance in San Antonio federal court. During a hearing, Mr. Zamorano said very little, giving yes and no answers to questions from U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney.

The alleged smugglertried to hide in the brush — high on methamphetamines — as authorities pulled the bodies of lifeless migrants from the 18-wheeler he’d driven up Interstate-35 and abandoned on a San Antonio street.

Witnesses soon spotted the man in a black-and-white striped shirt. Security footage helped confirm who he was: Hours before, a camera captured him driving through a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.

The Laredo-area checkpoint is on one of the busiest highways along the border, raising the possibility of choking commerce and creating havoc if every motorist is stopped and questioned.

Volume and configuration vary among checkpoints but agents generally have five to seven seconds to decide whether to question a driver, said Roy Villareal, former chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson, Ariz., sector.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott did not provide details on the extent of the state’s new inland inspections announced Thursday. Lt. Chris Olivarez, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said troopers would take a “more aggressive stance.”

In April, Mr. Abbott gridlocked Texas’ border for a week.