The alleged truck driver carrying dozens of migrants who died in the stifling heat in Texas this week initially tried to pose as a victim to escape authorities before being arrested, US and Mexican officials say.
The death toll in the incident rose to 53 when some migrants trapped inside the blistering tractor-trailer, which had been abandoned in a deserted area near a highway in San Antonio, died in hospital, local officials said.
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Officials said that more people, including minors, remain hospitalized in the worst human smuggling incident in recent US history.
Mexicans made up about half of the dead who died after being trapped in the back of the truck as temperatures outside soared to 39.4°C.
Dozens of Mexican families have been anxiously waiting this week for news of missing loved ones they fear are among the dead.
Mexican immigration officials identified the truck driver as “Homero N” only. They released a photo at 2:50 p.m. Monday of him driving the car through a security checkpoint in Laredo, Texas.
In addition to the driver, US authorities have arrested two Mexican men who were arrested as they left a house in San Antonio.
On Wednesday, US prosecutors continued their gun charges against them.
A federal judge in San Antonio, Texas, ordered the suspects – identified as Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez – to be held until a preliminary hearing on Friday.
Both men were charged Tuesday with possession of firearms while illegally residing in the United States.
Francisco Garduno, the head of Mexico’s National Migration Institute, said at a news conference Wednesday that the tractor-trailer passed two US Customs and Border Control checkpoints in Texas, which was captured on security cameras.
The first was in the town of Encinal, 65 km north of Laredo, and the second was in Cotulla, 48 km further north.
According to Mexican customs data, between 6,000 and 6,800 trucks travel north through the international arrival port of Nuevo Laredo-Laredo daily.
Garduno said on Wednesday that 14 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans, and two Salvadorans were killed in addition to the 27 Mexican fatalities reported a day earlier.
One of the bodies found in Texas had not yet been identified, and 16 migrants were still in six local hospitals, Garduno said.
He added that three of the injured are Mexicans, and the citizenships of 13 others remain unclear.
Garduno said there were 67 migrants on board the truck, lower than earlier estimates by some US officials.