Border Patrol agents arrested a man Sunday after they found a crying, asphyxiating teen in the trunk of his vehicle. It was one of two separate incidents in which two migrants were rescued from the trunks of vehicles.
Jose Luis Casares Jr. was arrested for trying to smuggle a 15-year-old through the Falfurrias checkpoint.
According to a criminal complaint, Casares arrived in a gray 2013 Chevrolet Sonic at about 10:15 a.m. Sunday and gave agents consent to search his trunk.
That’s when agents found an unaccompanied 15-year-old Honduran teen in the trunk. The teen immediately asked for medical help. Agents sat him down on a bench and gave him a bottle of water while they waited for emergency personnel to arrive.
The crying teen told authorities he felt he was “asphyxiating” after being in the trunk for over 30 minutes and said he gets like that in small, confined places.
He couldn’t breathe and felt his throat closing, he added.
The complaint said the teen was “visibly shaken by being closed in the trunk of the vehicle, having difficulty breathing and not having a way to get fresh air.”
Agents allowed the teen to remain in an open area where he could receive fresh air and was also provided water and a hot meal.
According to the complaint, Casares had already been charged with smuggling on three separate occasions, twice in 2006 and once in 2016. He was also charged once with harboring a person illegally present in the United States in 2017 and convicted of it.
During an interview, Casares became agitated after authorities asked him about his whereabouts prior to arriving at the checkpoint and he asked for an attorney.
The teen positively identified Casares in a photo lineup.
Casares is set to appear before Magistrate Judge Jason B. Libby for a detention hearing Friday.
Another person was found inside the trunk of a Ford Fusion near the Rio Grande in Roma.
A Rio Grande City camera operator saw people being loaded into the vehicle, and when U.S. Border Patrol agents approached the car, the driver drove the vehicle into the river.
“The driver and three passengers exited the partially submerged vehicle and swam into Mexico,” the release said. “Agents apprehended one passenger and rescued a (migrant) from inside the closed trunk.”
The migrants did not require additional medical services, the statement said.
