Victims in the deadly California crash were from Mexico, Guatemala. Officials suspect they entered the US illegally: latest updates

The more than two dozen people who were in an SUV that collided with a semitruck, killing 13 earlier this week near the U.S.-Mexico border, were from Mexico and Guatemala, consulate officials from the countries said.

The deadly collision occurred in Southern California just 10 miles from the border, where two vehicles entered the U.S. through a 10-foot hole in the border fence, Customs and Border Protection said Wednesday.

At least 10 of the people killed in the crash were Mexican nationals, a Mexican government official said. The driver of the 1997 Ford Expedition, which was carrying 25 passengers with its rear seats removed, was from Mexicali, Mexico, California Highway Patrol said.

Tekandi Paniagua, the Guatemalan Consul in Los Angeles, confirmed that a 23-year-old woman from Guatemala died in the crash and two other women from Guatemala remained hospitalized with injuries.

Border Patrol said all the victims of the crash are suspected to have entered the country illegally and was investigating potential ties to human smuggling. The other SUV that crossed the border, a Chevrolet Suburban that was carrying 19 people, caught fire after entering the U.S. but all passengers were able to escape before they were taken into Border Patrol custody.

Read more: The crash explained visually | Leer en espanol

“We pray for the accident victims and their families during this difficult time,” Gregory Bovino, the Border Patrol’s El Centro sector chief, said in a statement. “Human smugglers have proven time and again they have little regard for human life. Those who may be contemplating crossing the border illegally should pause to think of the dangers that all too often end in tragedy tragedies our Border Patrol Agents and first responders are unfortunately very familiar with.”

Investigators look over the scene of a crash between an SUV and a semi-truck full of gravel near Holtville, California on March 2, 2021. (Photo: Patrick T. Fallon, AFP via Getty Images)

Here’s what we know Thursday:

Who was killed and injured in the crash?

The ages of the passengers in the Expedition ranged from 15 to 53. No children were killed, police said.

Ten victims were from Mexico, said Roberto Velasco, director of North American affairs for Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department. The Mexican Consulate in Calexico said Wednesday that it had begun notifying the families of the Mexican nationals killed in the crash, but they shared few new details.

“We know that there are families in the United States, as well as in several states in Mexico. The consulate has reached out to six families of the deceased individuals,” said Mario Beltran Mainero, press officer for the consulate. “We’re working to reach all of them.”

At least one of the six families they located is in San Diego; the remaining families are in Mexico, Beltran Mainero said. Four Mexican nationals injured in the crash were released from the hospital in El Centro on Tuesday, but they were not in federal custody, he added.

One man, Tony Hernandez, told Univision his relatives from Michoacán, 25 and 32, died in the crash. He said they were on their way to Los Angeles. “I already talked to my relatives. They are devastated,” Hernandez said.

Paniagua, the Guatemalan Consul in Los Angeles, said that in addition to the one woman killed and the two injured, there were between eight to 10 people whose identities had not been confirmed yet. He said it was almost certain that some of the other migrants killed or injured in the crash are also from Guatemala.

“Since yesterday, we’ve been receiving and establishing an intra-consular coordination among our sister consulates in New York, in Dallas and in Houston because several family members had reported their suspicions that their relatives were on board that truck,” Paniagua said.

The consulate has already contacted the family members of the 23-year-old woman killed in the crash who live in New York and in Guatemala, he said.

The semitruck driver, Joe Beltran, 68, of El Centro, was also taken to the hospital with “major injuries,” the preliminary crash report said.

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