Fronteras

The Pinal County Sheriff's Office said eight suspected undocumented immigrants have been hospitalized after being found in the back of a U-Haul truck at a gas station northwest of Tucson. Chief Deputy Steve Henry said each of them had paid $5,000 to be transported from Douglas to Phoenix, but that it was just too hot inside the truck.

“The heat being what it was that day, they were just sick,” Henry said. “They were pounding on the back of the truck or whatever and the truck finally pulled over and the doors opened, and there was witnesses to those doors opening, and there were so many people in medical distress.”

Henry said the eight were gravely ill. Two of them were flown out by helicopter, and he said all of them were subject to levels of heat illness including heat stroke.