88 Aliens Freed From Truck Rig at San Onofre

Immigration officials say a tragedy may have been averted Wednesday when agents found 88 illegal aliens locked inside a tractor-trailer rig at a state truck-weighing station at San Onofre on Interstate 5.

Border Patrol agents from the adjacent checkpoint near San Clemente broke the lock on the trailer door and released the occupants after hearing cries from inside, an official said.

“The people (inside) were hollering and screaming once they heard someone outside,” Border Patrol spokesman Gene Smithburg said.

Helped From Truck

A number of those in the trailer seemed to be suffering from heat exhaustion and had to be helped from the vehicle, but Smithburg said that no one needed to be put in a hospital. First aid was administered at the scene.

The driver, identified as Roberto Perez Florez, 22, of Tijuana, will face federal smuggling charges, officials said.

Wednesday’s incident comes a week after 18 illegal aliens were found suffocated inside a railroad boxcar in West Texas during an intense heat wave.

Because of Wednesday’s mild temperatures along the coast, the incident was not immediately life threatening, Smithburg said, but he noted that the potential for tragedy was there.

“It’s not hot like Texas here, and the distances are much longer there,” Smithburg said. “But you never know. . . . Suppose the driver left (the vehicle) someplace overnight?”

Throughout the border region, groups of aliens, often aided by smugglers, cram into boxcars, trucks, cars and other vehicles to avoid U.S. immigration officials and reach jobs in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities.

On Tuesday, officials in San Diego seized a tractor-trailer filled with 52 illegal aliens.

Record Catch

Last month, agents at the San Clemente checkpoint found a similar vehicle crammed with 173 undocumented people--believed to be the most ever found in a single vehicle along the border.

Also last month, a Border Patrol officer shot to death the driver of a truck carrying 57 undocumented passengers near Campo in East County. No one else was injured. Officials maintained that the shooting was justified because the driver had tried to run the agent down.

In Wednesday’s incident, the Border Patrol spokesman said that the tractor-trailer rig stopped at the state truck scales shortly before 1 p.m. Officials at the scales became suspicious after noticing moisture seeping from the bottom of the vehicle. As is often done, Border Patrol agents were called in from the nearby checkpoint.

Broke Open Lock

Once agents pounded on the sides of the vehicle, Smithburg said, they heard the screams of those inside and decided to break open the lock. The occupants then began staggering out of the trailer, where there had been little ventilation.

The moisture seeping from the vehicle was probably a mixture of sweat and urine from the occupants, who had been inside at least four hours, Smithburg said.

All of the occupants were Mexican citizens, Smithburg said. Most were men, although the group also included four women and one child. They had paid $350 each to be smuggled from the border area, probably to Los Angeles. All will probably be returned to Mexico.