A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Guatemalan man extradited to the U.S. over his role in a 2022 human smuggling attempt that ended in the deaths of 53 migrants who had been transported in a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas.
U.S. and Guatemalan prosecutors called Rigoberto Ramon Miranda Orozco's sentencing another step toward justice in one of the deadliest smuggling attempts along the U.S.-Mexico border. Miranda Orozco, 50, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after admitting to arranging travel and accommodations for two people who died and another who was seriously injured.
Nearly 20 people in the U.S. and Guatemala have been convicted since the discovery of the abandoned trailer full of bodies horrified communities accustomed to seeing their young people leave, trying to flee poverty or violence in Central America and Mexico.
“It was clear that they suffered tremendously in their last few hours on this earth,” U.S. Attorney Justin Simmons told reporters at a news conference following the sentencing.
The trailer’s air conditioning malfunctioned and would not blow cool air to the people trapped inside during the sweltering, three-hour ride in June 2022 from the border city of Laredo to San Antonio, authorities said. Prosecutors have said migrants paid up to $15,000 each to be taken across the U.S. border.
When the abandoned trailer was opened on a remote San Antonio back road, 48 migrants were dead. Another 16 were taken to hospitals, where five more died.
Simmons said investigators found clothing passengers had shed to cool off and claw marks on the trailer’s walls.
“They were literally trying to claw their way out,” he said.
Twenty-one of those who died were from Guatemala, Simmons said.
Miranda Orozco’s attorney, Alfonso Cabanas Jr., called the sentence “very tough.” He said his client was in Guatemala at the time and had no control over the type of transportation the migrants would take to San Antonio nor did he know the air conditioning was malfunctioning.
Cabanas said he doesn’t think harsh punishments will “make a dent” in such operations.
“What we do need is comprehensive immigration reform,” Cabanas said.
U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia sentenced Miranda Orozco, who was arrested in Guatemala in 2024 and extradited to the U.S. the following year.
He pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to bring a migrant into the U.S. resulting in death, aiding and abetting bringing a migrant into the U.S. resulting in death, as well as aiding and abetting bringing a migrant into the U.S. resulting in serious bodily injury, prosecutors said.
Simmons said prosecutors in Guatemala were integral in securing convictions for Miranda Orozco and others. Simmons was joined by Guatemalan Attorney General Gabriel García Luna, who reflected on the suffering the migrants inside the tractor-trailer endured.
“They paid for a promise, and those who cashed in on that promise abandoned them to their fate,” García Luna said.
Last year, Felipe Orduna-Torres, described by prosecutors as the leader of the smuggling operations inside the U.S., was sentenced to life in prison in the U.S. Armando Gonzales-Ortega, his top assistant, was sentenced to 83 years.
Sentencing dates have been set for more people, including the truck’s driver.
The tragedy is the deadliest among those that have claimed thousands of lives in recent decades as people attempt to cross the U.S. border from Mexico. Ten migrants died in 2017 after they were trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart in San Antonio.
In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio.
Associated Press writer Laura Turbay contributed to this story.
FILE - Police and other first responders work the scene where officials say dozens of people have been found dead and multiple others were taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses after a tractor-trailer containing suspected migrants was found on June 27, 2022, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Doctors have amputated both of Australian federal lawmaker Helen Haines ' legs as she remains in critical condition after being repeatedly hit by a car in an apparent act of political violence, her husband said Wednesday.
The 65-year-old independent politician is receiving treatment in a Melbourne hospital where she was flown by helicopter.
Phil Haines, her husband, gave the family’s first public comments on her condition since she was hit by a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV in her hometown of Wangaratta on Monday, speaking hours after a man accused of running her over made an initial appearance in court.
Haines' husband said her left leg was amputated on Monday and her right leg was amputated on Wednesday after doctors abandoned hope of saving it.
“The good news in all this is that Helen is alive and she’s stable. That is the most important thing for our family,” the husband told reporters in Melbourne.
“We are grateful and thankful that at this stage, both her heart and her mind are in good shape,” he said.
He added that their 40th wedding anniversary will be in November.
Earlier Wednesday, Brendan Nugent, a 43-year-old man from nearby Tarrawingee, appeared in the Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court charged with intentionally causing serious injury, dangerous driving causing serious injury and causing harm to a federal official.
Nugent didn’t apply for bail or enter a plea. He will remain in custody until his next court appearance in February. Police have yet to determine a motive.
Nugent's lawyer Chirag Patel told Magistrate Allison Vaughan that his client was suffering from potential mental health issues but had never been diagnosed with any mental health problem.
Patel said Nugent suffered from a neurological condition, idiopathic transverse myelitis, and a concussion. The lawyer did not explain how Nugent had been concussed.
The rare condition damages the spinal cord’s protective myelin sheath and disrupts nerve signals between the brain and body. This leads to rapid muscle weakness, sensory loss, pain, and bladder and bowel dysfunction, according to the Cleveland Clinic medical center.
Witnesses say the driver rammed his victim, pinning her against her own car before reversing and ramming her a second time.
The well-regarded lawmaker's plight has shocked Australians, as political violence is uncommon in the country and politicians are highly accessible to the public. Most lawmakers are not accompanied by security details and go about their work and personal lives on their own.
Senior opposition lawmaker James Paterson on Wednesday called for a review of lawmakers’ personal security in response to the alleged crime.
“The reality is that Australian parliamentarians by global standards are uniquely accessible to the public and that’s a good thing,” Paterson told Australian Broadcasting Corp.
“But we … can’t have a situation where shocking attacks like this take place because that will fundamentally change our democracy forever if it becomes a serious risk to your life to be a member of parliament,” Paterson added.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged lawmakers to continue to engage openly with the public despite worsening animosity within the community.
“We want to make sure that people can feel as much comfort as possible that everything’s being done to maximize security,” Albanese told News24.
“I think parliamentarians across the board are determined to make sure that we can continue to engage as we need to in this great democracy of ours,” Albanese added. “That interaction is really important in our democracy.”
Lawmakers began online meetings with Australia’s security agencies on Wednesday to discuss their safety. Such briefings are a regular occurrence.
Albanese described the briefings as an “opportunity for people who feel anxious to be able to ask questions” of security agencies.
Australian Federal Police provide personal security only to those lawmakers who are assessed as higher risk, usually because they have attracted the attention of dangerous people. Prime ministers always have personal protection and immigration ministers often do because they anger people with visa decisions.
Paterson said providing police protection to all 226 federal lawmakers would not be practical. But he suggested increased security at electorate offices, such as Haines’ office where she was hit. Paterson said lawmakers were “most identifiable” at their offices. Coming and going could be a “risky moment.”
Federal Police Commissioner Kissy Barrett told reporters providing police protection to all parliamentarians would take an “incredible amount of resourcing.”
Police received 1,067 reports of threatening, harassing, nuisance and offensive communications against high officeholders including federal lawmakers and their office staff in the last fiscal year — a 12% increase on the previous year. Barrett said almost one suspect a week was charged over such threats.
Elsewhere in the world, authorities have warned of growing threats to lawmakers. The United States has seen a rise in political violence over the past decade.
That includes the 2022 hammer assault on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi; the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump during his presidential campaign, as well as another on the president at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April; and the assassinations in 2025 of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk.
In Britain, killings of politicians have also led to tighter security. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, while Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the militant Islamic State group.
In July, the former British politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was found beaten to death with a hammer at her home. A man has been charged with murder and terrorism-related offenses.
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
Brendan Nugent departs from the Wangaratta Magistrates Court in Wangaratta, Australia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (James Ross/AAP Image via AP)
Australian independent member of parliament Helen Haines speaks at a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, Tuesday, May 26, 2026. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)
Phil Haines, husband of independent member of parliament Helen Haines, speaks to the media at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AAPImage via AP)
