The death of 50 illegal immigrants being smuggled in the back of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on June 27 brought up tragic memories for Tom Homan, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Homan had seen it before—in Victoria, Texas, in 2003. A tractor-trailer with as many as 80 illegal immigrants crammed inside with no water and no way to escape. It was a refrigerated truck in which the smugglers had turned off the refrigeration—the same as in San Antonio. Nineteen people died in the 2003 incident.
