(NewsNation) — The driver of a tractor-trailer who was allegedly carrying 18 undocumented people through Texas and fled after border agents told him to stop for a second inspection is facing federal charges.
Authorities say Daniel Rodriguez approached the Javier Vega Jr. checkpoint in Sarita, Texas, about 80 miles north of the Texas-Mexico border, in a trailer registered in his name on Aug. 28, a federal complaint stated.
While being questioned by border patrol agents at the stop, Rodriguez started “nervously speaking and mumbling his answers,” according to the legal complaint.
After a positive canine alert, agents instructed Rodriguez to pull into a secondary inspection area, but despite acknowledging the order he instead “completely disregarded the BPA’s instructions to park” and “proceeded to continue driving north on Highway 77,” the complaint stated.
Border agents issued a radio call and authorities in a patrol car were able to stop Rodriguez and asked him to return to the checkpoint, according to court papers.
Once at the checkpoint, a canine alerted agents to the rear doors of the trailer.
“When the trailer doors were opened, eighteen subjects were discovered sitting on the floor with no cargo inside the trailer,” the complaint says.
Agents determined that all the people in the trailer were “citizens and nationals of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, and El Salvador illegally present in the United States.”
The driver and all the passengers were arrested and taken for processing, according to the complaint.
Aaron Wallace Rendon, an attorney for Rodriguez told NewsNation in a statement that “due to the confidentiality agreements and ongoing legal processes, we are unable to provide detailed information at this time.”
“However, I can confirm that Mr. Rodriguez still maintains his innocence.”
The complaint alleged Rodriguez claimed to have no knowledge of the passengers and that the only stop he made after leaving the truck lot and before arriving at the checkpoint was at a gas station for fuel.
He told authorities that he was driving the tractor trailer to Houston to fix the motor in the refrigerated trailer, but authorities noted that the inside temperature registered at 68 degrees in the complaint.
Rodriguez also claimed that he left the inspection area initially because he did not hear the border patrol’s commands because “there was a vehicle traveling too fast,” the complaint states. He added that he accidentally drove too far past the secondary inspection area and was unable to pull into the spot so he continued to drive northbound.
Agents interviewed individuals found inside the trailer and one person admitted that he had illegally crossed into the country and had been instructed to get into the trailer along with several other people.
He identified Rodriguez as one of the people standing near the trailer when he got in.
“The subject told the aliens the driver was going to make 3 stops. The first stop was to put diesel in the tractor. The second stop, the driver was going to do a safety check on the tractor. The third stop was going to be when the tractor trailer would stop and move a little bit and keep doing that repeatedly which meant they would be at immigration and the aliens were instructed not to move or make any noise,” the complaint stated.
The arrests come less than two weeks after the Department of Justice announced the arrest of a Guatemalan man accused of orchestrating a smuggling operation that led to the deaths of 53 migrants in a tractor trailer in 2022.
The incident had been the deadliest tragedy ever involving migrants crossing the southern border into the United States.
In sweltering heat, 67 migrants were stuffed into a semitrailer to be taken across the border; 53 of those migrants died from heat and dehydration after the trailer was abandoned near San Antonio on June 27.
