The chilling screams of a young woman came from a desolate, debris-strewn urban hinterland between salvage yards and railroad tracks on Quintana Road in the outskirts of San Antonio.
When a man who worked for a nearby paving company, Ricardo Quintero, followed the sounds, he came across a ghastly scene. A trailer had its doors ajar. In and around the trailer were piles of badly burned bodies, many of them lifeless. Others gasped for air. A teenage girl wearing all black pounded the asphalt in desperation and pleaded for help.
“She was hysterical,” Mr. Quintero recalled.
Mr. Quintero described the scene in court testimony during the first days of a federal trial of two men who are accused of being part of a sprawling smuggling ring. Prosecutors say the ring was responsible for the deaths of 53 migrants — 47 adults and six children — on June 27, 2022, possibly the deadliest migrant smuggling incident in the nation’s history.
Testimony from witnesses, law enforcement and survivors has offered a window into the plight of undocumented immigrants who sneak into the country and try to stay undetected, rather than turn themselves in to the authorities and request asylum, the preferred route for much of the Biden administration.
As President Trump cracks down on the asylum system and moves to close the border, he has embraced what he has called the humanitarian side of his aggressive immigration crackdown, stopping human trafficking. The gruesome trial in San Antonio is highlighting the perils of trafficking, while the president’s policies make such treacherous avenues to entry potentially more profitable to smugglers.
The two defendants, Armando Gonzales-Ortega, 54, and Felipe Orduna-Torres, 29, are charged with conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants resulting in death. They are potentially facing sentences of life in prison. A verdict is expected by early April.
