US District Judge Orlando Garcia handed the sentence to 39-year-old Rigoberto Ramon Miranda-Orozco on Tuesday, more than a year after his extradition from Guatemala in March 2025. Miranda-Orozco pleaded guilty in July to conspiring to bring a migrant into the US resulting in death, and to aiding and abetting the unlawful entry of migrants resulting in death and serious bodily injury.
The charges stem from June 27, 2022, when emergency crews found dozens of people inside an abandoned truck on the southern outskirts of San Antonio. A total of 64 migrants had made a lengthy journey from Guatemala through Mexico and across the border. By the time the truck was driving the 250km (155 miles) from Laredo, Texas, to San Antonio, prosecutors said the air conditioning had stopped working, with temperatures approaching 32C (90F).
Forty-eight people were pronounced dead at the scene and five more died while receiving emergency treatment for heat-related illness and dehydration. Among the dead were six children and a pregnant woman, including 21 Guatemalan nationals.
Miranda-Orozco admitted to arranging travel and accommodation for two of the migrants who died and another who survived but suffered grave injuries. Prosecutors said passengers paid as much as $15,000 for passage, and investigators found signs of desperate escape attempts, including discarded clothing and scratch marks on the trailer's interior.
"It was clear that they suffered tremendously in their last few hours on this earth," US Attorney Justin Simmons told reporters after the sentencing.
According to The Associated Press, Miranda-Orozco is among a group of nearly 20 people sentenced in the US and Guatemala in connection with the tragedy. Felipe Orduna-Torres, identified as the operation's leader, was sentenced to life in prison in June 2025, while his top assistant, Armando Gonzales-Ortega, received an 83-year sentence. The truck driver's case remains pending.
The I-35 highway where the truck was found is considered a popular smuggling corridor, Jack Staton, a former senior official with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told Reuters at the time. The administration of President Donald Trump has cited the need to end human trafficking as a rationale for its crackdown on irregular immigration, while critics argue that hardline enforcement tactics may drive migrants to pursue more dangerous crossing methods.