Photo: John Moore / Getty Images
For: EFE
Monday, October 7
Jail “guide” who abandoned immigrants to their fate amid low temperatures in Texas
A man who confessed to being a migrant guide on the southern border of Texas was sentenced to more than 7 years in jail for two human smuggling attempts or, reported this Tuesday by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Eduardo Javier Jiménez, of 27 years, pleaded guilty last May to both human smuggling attempts.
This Tuesday, District Judge Drew B. Tipton ordered Jiménez to serve a total of 85 months in federal prison, followed by two years of probation.
In one of the incidents Jiménez abandoned the migrants in freezing temperatures , which resulted in the death of one of the foreigners.
According to the prosecution, last February the authorities they found Jiménez at the cost from a highway near the border asking for a ride.
Although the authorities suspected that the man could be an undocumented guide, they could not verified his suspicions and released him.
Later, the authorities detained a group of 12 migrants who claimed their guide had abandoned them, leaving them in freezing temperatures for more than 15 hours. One person in this group died of hypothermia.
Some of the migrants said that the guide told them they had to go to the bathroom and encouraged them to go ahead promising that he would return, but he never did.
A week after the first incident, federal authorities found Jiménez leading a second group. “At that time, he admitted that he had done the same with the other group the week of the heavy frost,” explained the DOJ.
Jiménez has been in federal custody since his arrest in February passed and will serve his sentence in a federal jail