AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Two smugglers convicted of federal charges in connection with the deaths of 53 migrants found in the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer in Texas in 2022 will spend the rest of their lives in prison after being sentenced Friday on the third anniversary of the tragedy.
Felipe Orduna-Torres and Armando Gonzales-Ortega were the first of several defendants to be sentenced for what remains the nation’s deadliest human smuggling attempt across the U.S.-Mexico border.
A federal jury convicted the men in March of being part of a human smuggling conspiracy that resulted in death and injury. They were sentenced by U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia at a hearing in San Antonio…