Mexican Immigrants Journey by Truck to Death

Mexican immigrants transported by smugglers under horrific conditions.

On May 13, 2003 a group of illegal immigrants were gathered at a stash house located in a border town just outside of Harlingen, Texas, deep in the Rio Grande Valley. They were later told by their coyotes to hide and wait behind some brush cover in a field across the road for a truck that would take them on their journey across the border into Texas. It was extremely hot and humid throughout that day. Some of the survivors would later recall how the heat of the day began to take its toll, while waiting to be picked-up for their journey. To make matters worse, the immigrants were wearing double sets of clothes to avoid having to carry luggage. Later that night, around 10 p.m., Tyrone Mapletoft Williams, a 32-year-old Jamaican immigrant driving a white Freight-liner diesel truck, the legend "Wild Child" painted across the cab door, entered the field. The truck was pulling a 48-foot-long trailer equipped with a refrigeration unit. Tyrone normally used this rig to haul fresh milk from New York to Texas; and would make a return trip to New York with watermelons. On this night, Tyrone agreed to carry a truck load of illegal immigrants through a Border Patrol checkpoint about 45 miles up the highway, for a fee of $7500. After the immigrants were loaded onto his rig and the journey was under way, Tyrone received instructions from the smugglers to take his human cargo to Houston, a six-hour drive. Tyrone followed a smuggler's "rabbit car" to another hiding spot. At this location a smuggler opened the trailer and shouted in Spanish to a group of immigrants to get into the trailer. Abelardo Flores the lead smuggler told Tyrone to stay in the cab of the rig and not allow the immigrants to see him. Flores gave Tyrone instructions on how to handle himself at the border checkpoint: Remain "cool" at the checkpoint. Tell the agent you are running empty. If caught, feign surprise and claim that the people must have sneaked on board, perhaps while you were asleep or inside a truck stop. One thing Flores did not tell Williams was how many people were being compacted into his trailer. It is estimated that between 74 and 100 were loaded into the rig. The air conditioning in the cab had failed and the heat was stifling. One can only imagine how hot it was in the trailer. Problems escalated as sounds extreme discomfort and death were being heard from within the trailer. It was about this time that Tyrone Williams began to realize how many people were crammed into his trailer rig. He bought some water at a stop and stuffed it into cab. But the little water he did buy was not nearly enough. At 1:37 in the morning Williams stopped to buy more water. The clerk at the store recalls seeing him detach the trailer and drive off. Eighteen of the immigrant passengers were dead at the scene and another died later at the hospital. Three and a half years later, Williams would fight for his own survival, charged with 58 federal smuggling counts, 20 of which carried potential death sentences.