How common is human trafficking by truck?

Border officials have reported an uptick in the number of people-smuggling incidents using tractor-trailers. That included one July 7, when Border Patrol agents in Laredo, Texas, found 72 people from Mexico, Ecuador, Guatemala and El Salvador locked inside a trailer. Weeks before, they had rescued 44 people from Mexico and Guatemala discovered after police stopped an 18-wheeler near one of the city’s international bridges.

Whether this recent increase is a trend and what might explain it is hard to know. A recent report from Europeanbased global-risk group Verisk Maplecroft suggests that a harder line on border security by the Trump administration might be leading migrants to accept the risks of more dangerous smuggling methods.