XALAPA, VERACRUZ — Mexican authorities discovered 229 migrants packed inside a stolen truck at a police impound lot in the eastern state of Veracruz on March 23, 2026. The migrants began calling for help after the vehicle was taken to the impound facility.

The truck had been stopped approximately 45 kilometers southeast of Xalapa before being transported to the lot. Hours after the vehicle arrived at the impound lot, workers heard shouting and banging coming from inside the trailer. Workers called emergency services to open the vehicle when they realized people were locked inside.

Most of the migrants were from Central America, and seventeen were minors. Some of the migrants were dehydrated when discovered. In the afternoon, state police buses removed the migrants from the impound lot. Veracruz police did not report where the migrants were being taken.

Migrants without legal status are generally handed over to Mexico's immigration agency. Veracruz is one of the states that migrants have historically crossed to reach the United States. Migrants crossing through Veracruz are preyed upon by cartels and other criminal groups.

Migrants are often packed into trucks in dangerous conditions to evade authorities while being smuggled north. These vehicles are usually overcrowded, in poor conditions, and put migrants at risk of dying. Since President Donald Trump took office in 2025, migration north has declined and similar migrant smuggling cases have been infrequent.

In 2022, 53 migrants died after being abandoned inside a truck in San Antonio, Texas. Two individuals were later sentenced to decades in prison for the incident. A deadly accident involving migrants also occurred in southern Mexico in 2021.

From 2022 to 2024, Mexican authorities increased the seizure of smuggling vehicles and the detention of migrants traveling inside them. Smugglers have sometimes specially modified trailers with hidden compartments to evade inspections and have used fake ambulances to evade checkpoints.

According to internal federal statistics, unlawful crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2025 declined to the lowest annual level since the early 1970s. Shelters in southern Mexico have begun to take in Central American migrants heading north again this year, in addition to receiving non-Mexican foreigners deported by President Donald Trump, although in very small numbers.