53 people, including six children, died after they were abandoned inside a locked tractor-trailer in San Antonio.

On June 27, 2022, a man called 9-1-1 after the sound of distant yelling led him to an 18-wheeler that filled with dozens of unconscious migrants packed inside with no air conditioning or water. Fourty-six people were found dead at the scene. Five more died in hospitals after being rescued, raising the death toll in the human smuggling tragedy to 53.

Four people were charged in connection to the deadliest human smuggling tragedy in the U.S. Homero Zamorano, Jr., 45, was arrested and charged with one count of immigrant smuggling resulting in death after he tired to leave the scene and hid in brush. Immigration checkpoint surveillance footage from the Laredo Sector Border Patrol confirmed he was the person driving the truck. Christian Martinez, 28, was charged with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants resulting in death after officials found communication about the smuggling on Zamorano's cell phone. They plead guilty and face life in prison. Two other suspects were arrested in connection with the incident days after the tragedy: Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendez and Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao, whose license plates were traced at the scene. They were ultimately charged with possession of a firearm while unlawfully present in the United States.

Meanwhile, public safety officials and consulates worked for two weeks to identify all smuggling victims, who were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. Six were children. The youngest victim was a 13-year-old boy. A young woman was pregnant. Latinos across the state mourned the deaths of people seeking better lives.

A year later, investigators unveiled that the smuggling was a part of a larger human smuggling organization that shared routes, stash houses and trucks, and charged each victim between $12,000 to $15,000 for transportation into the U.S. Four more people in San Antonio, Houston and Marshall were arrested for conspiracy to transport migrants illegally resulting in death; conspiracy to transport migrants resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy; transportation of migrants resulting in death; and transportation of migrants resulting in serious bodily injury and placing lives in jeopardy.

San Antonio didn't stop grieveing the painful tragedy. Nearby residents erected 53 wooden crosses where the victims were found dead and hand-painted their names on each cross, creating a makeshift memorial.

It got the city's attention and in 2024, it completed a planned permanent memorial site next to the makeshift one. Every year on June 27, people attend a ceremony honoring the lives lost that tragic day in 2022. Across the city, the human smuggling tragedy has inspired art murals and changed the way EMS responds to heat-related illnesses as summers get hotter in South Texas.

As the permanent memorial site neared completion, investigators continued to make arrests. In August 2024, investigators from Joint Task Force Alpha of the Department of Justice announced and with Guatemalan law enforcement, they arrested seven more people who recruited people for smugglers in Guatemala and extradited at least one of them to the U.S. to face charges tied to the 2022 smuggling tragedy.

In January 2025, Zamorano pled guilty for two counts of conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants resulting in death and one count resulting in serious injury. The trial was hard to sit through; survivors said Zamorano knew the truck's air conditioning didn't work inside, and that he ignored screams for help. I left the publication in March 2025, before his trial was delayed because of a communication issue between the court and a witness testifying on Zoom, according to the San Antonio Express-News.

The trial for Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Ortega started in March 2025. On the third anniversary of the deadly human smuggling tragedy, Orduna-Torres and Gonzales-Ortega were found guilty by a federal jury and sentenced to 83 years in prison.

This one was a hard one to cover as a reporter. As a Latina, my heart ached for their hopes and dreams that died with them. As a human, it was hard to process what I saw a heard. One of the most baffling parts of this entire story, though, is that I had to convince my editor it was worth covering. (Sighs in Spanish)

While all of this unfolded, a few miles north in central San Antonio, thousands of immigrants claiming asylum were arriving in San Antonio after being processed at the Texas-Mexico border. In San Antonio, they were either picked up by family members or friends, or needed to figure out how to get to their host cities across the U.S. San Antonio opened a resource center to structure the arrival of thousands of people who didn't speak English.

Read about that coverage here.