17 immigrants found locked inside hot tractor-trailer in Texas

The immigrants were locked inside the trailer for eight hours.

ByABC News
August 14, 2017, 7:50 AM

— -- Seventeen immigrants were rescued from a stifling tractor-trailer in Texas on Sunday after being locked inside for as many as eight hours.

The undocumented immigrants were driven across the Mexican border before the tractor trailer stopped in Edinburg, Texas, according to police. Edinburg is about 20 miles north of the border.

Edinburg police said they received a call from Mexico reporting a relative was locked inside the trailer at about 11 a.m. on Sunday, ABC affiliate KRGV reported. Police said they found the trailer at a Flying J truck stop, knocked on the outside and heard a response. The immigrants had been inside the trailer for as long as eight hours, according to police.

The immigrants were from from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Romania, KRGV reported.

None of the 17 people rescued from the truck required medical assistance, according to KRGV. Temperatures reached 102 degrees in Edinburg on Saturday.

Two suspects were taken into custody, according to police.

In a similar case, 10 illegal immigrants died in the back of a tractor trailer which was found parked at a San Antonio Walmart on July 23.