- 27 migrants cramped into sweltering horse cart in +100 degree heat
- Migrants on the verge of passing out before Texas DPS troopers rescued them
- READ MORE: 53 migrants die from heat stroke locked in Texas big rig horror
In the triple-digit-heat of South Texas, 27 illegal immigrants were rescued from a horse trailer that was being used to smuggle them from the Texas-Mexico border to the Houston area, shocking video shared by state troopers shows.
The video shared by Texas Department of Public Safety Wednesday shows an officer pulling over a Ford F-250 truck towing a horse trailer on US-281 in Hidalgo County.
During the Friday night traffic stop, the driver claimed he transporting two horses to Humble, a community in the Houston area.
The sly cop asks if he can have a peak inside the horse cart, and the driver agrees, and later adds that the horses are aggressive and that he didn't have a key to open the doors.
Eventually, the doors to the trailer open and a man hiding inside is visible.
27 illegal immigrants were found crammed into a horse trailer Friday in Hidalgo County, Texas
The trooper immediately handcuffs the driver, identified as Jose Guadalupe Salinas of Palmview, Texas.
Border Patrol is called to the scene to assist, and the trooper begins asking the more than two dozens migrants if they need water.
That area of the Lone Star State reaches over 100 degrees this time of year, and is often well over 90 degrees at night.
'Do you need water,' the officer asks a migrant man.
'It's really hot,' the man replies.
Four migrant women were sick when they were rescued from the truck, needing medical attention due to the heat
The driver claimed he was transporting two horses to Humble, in the Houston area
Texas DPS named the driver charged with trafficking 27 migrants
Once out of the horse compartment, some of the women in the group brace themselves against the vehicle for support as their bodies give in the heat.
'We have four people passing out over here,' the trooper tells the dispatcher as he continues to call for medical attention for the migrants.
Salinas was not only charged with smuggling, but also with the additional charge of likelihood of serious bodily injury or death.
The trooper's discovery likely saved the migrants from severe injury or death.
In 2022, 53 illegal immigrants who were being smuggled from the border to San Antonio died after they were locked inside a tractor trailer.
The migrants were in dangerous heat for an unknown amount of time
Migrants being smuggled into the US often are transported in locked vehicles and they cannot get out if they decide to
Prosecutors described the heat inside the unventilated truck as reaching 140 degrees.
With no way out, air conditioning, food or water, San Antonio police found stacks of bodies once they discovered the abandoned commercial vehicle.
The San Antonio incident remains the deadliest smuggling incident in American history.
