What to Know
- Police say a truck driver dropped off 34 undocumented immigrants at a Weatherford truck stop Sunday night.
- INS officials verified the individuals entered the U.S. illegally at the El Paso/Juarez border by an organized human smuggling group
- Border Patrol agents are processing the immigrants in Abilene.
Weatherford police and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials are investigating after nearly three dozen undocumented immigrants were dropped off at a truck stop Sunday night, officials say.[[382780261,C]]
Officers received a call at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday in reference to an 18-wheeler box truck that had stopped at the Truck and Travel truck stop and unloaded several people from the back of the trailer.
When police arrived, they found 34 people walking in the parking lot and on the road near the business. All of the individuals are believed to be undocumented immigrants of Hispanic origin from Mexico and Honduras.
Police contacted INS officials, who were able to verify that the individuals had been illegally smuggled into the United States and dropped off in Weatherford. The 34 individuals were a mix of males and females, including three minors.
The immigrants told officials they paid someone to smuggle them into the U.S. at the El Paso/Juarez border. They said they temporarily stayed at a house in El Paso, then a truck driver was contracted to drive them from El Paso to Dallas. However, the driver instead decided to leave them in Weatherford.
The driver left before police arrived. Officers do not have a detailed description of the driver or the truck at this time.
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The individuals were hot, tired and hungry, as they apparently had been traveling in the rear of the hot trailer the entire day, police said.
They were provided with food and water. Police said they were offered medical treatment, but none of them appeared to be in medical distress.
None of the individuals have been charged with a criminal offense and none of them were arrested, according to Weatherford police. They were detained on an INS hold and housed at Parker County Jail Sunday night.
Border Patrol agents picked up the immigrants on Monday and are processing them in Abilene.
Police say all indications appear to be that the individuals are non-U.S. citizens who attempted to enter the country illegally to find work by using an organized human smuggling group.
INS hopes to get more information about the human smuggling group from interviews in the coming days.
