Man pleads guilty to smuggling immigrants, faces prison

An El Indio man pleaded guilty Thursday to transporting nearly 70 undocumented immigrants who poured out of a tractor-trailer in Pearsall earlier this year.

Authorities said Luis Enrique de la Cerda, who is in his 50s, tried to blend in with the immigrants when the rig stopped in Pearsall after someone began following it on March 22. The incident garnered national media attention amid an increase in immigrants smuggled in tractor trailers.

“He accepted responsibility,” said his lawyer, Robbie Ward. “He’s never really been in trouble before. This is out of character for him.”

According to Pearsall police, they were contacted after a witness saw an arm and a head stick out of a vent opening in the back. The witness followed it to the 800 block of South Oak, where the driver stopped the 18wheeler and began to let people out of the trailer.

Police quickly responded to the call and found several people running in different directions. Pearsall police and officers from agencies that included the Frio County Sheriff’s Office, the Pearsall Independent School District and the Texas Department of Public Safety began to chase the fleeing people.

They detained 67 people, among them a pair of juveniles in their early teens and the suspected driver.

The immigrants appeared dehydrated and were given water by first responders, police said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations charged de la Cerda and opened a broader investigation. He was indicted May 5, then released on bond, but bail was revoked in August because he got in trouble afterward by reportedly having a gun during an unrelated confrontation with a woman, court records show.

He faces up to five years in federal prison when U.S. District Judge Jason Pulliam sentences him in March.