SAN ANTONIO – The bodies of at least 46 people believed to be migrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico were found dead Monday in and around a tractor trailer that was abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, announced state and city authorities. .
At least 16 others, including children, were taken to local hospitals alive but suffering from heat exhaustion and apparent dehydration, city officials said during a press conference at the site of what appeared to be one of the worst deaths of migrants. in the United States in recent years.
“The plight of asylum seekers is always a humanitarian crisis,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told reporters late Monday. “But tonight we are dealing with a horrific human tragedy.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said three people had been detained. Earlier in the day, officers searched for the driver of the vehicle, who appeared to have abandoned the truck before being found in a remote area near railroad tracks and rescue workers southwest of downtown. Chief McManus did not say whether the driver was among those detained.
The truck was found by a nearby business worker who “heard a cry for help and went out to investigate,” said Chief McManus, adding that the worker found the trailer doors partially open and found many bodies inside.
Most of the bodies, including men and women, were found inside the truck around 6pm, although at least one was outside the vehicle. Fire chief Charles Hood said people who had been transported to hospitals were “hot to the touch” and appeared to be suffering from “heat stroke, heat exhaustion”. The truck, although designed for cooling, had no “no visible air conditioning system,” he said.
Texas government officials, who already manage record levels of migrant crossings from Mexico, are preparing for a new leap this spring and summer. It is believed that all the victims crossed into the United States illegally and were brought north. The nearest border crossing is about 140 miles away.
“The plight of asylum seekers is always a humanitarian crisis,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Credit … Eric Gay / Associated Press
“These deaths are from Biden,” Republican Gov. Greg Abbott said in a brief statement on Twitter. “They are the result of his deadly policy of open borders. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law. “
Authorities did not say how the people died, but suggested the cause was extreme heat. San Antonio and other cities in Texas experience heat in June, which is at or near record levels. The temperature in the city on Monday was over 100 degrees.
“Imagine being abandoned in an 18-wheeled car left to die,” spokesman Tony Gonzalez, whose congressional district stretches from the outskirts of San Antonio to the border, wrote on Twitter. “Will @AliMayorkas even mention their names?” He added, referring to Alejandro Mallorcas, secretary of internal security.
A spokesman for the Texas State Police asked the San Antonio Police Department, which did not respond to requests for comment. The Homeland Security was expected to take over the investigation.
The federal agency said in a statement that it was working with state and local authorities to investigate the deaths. Homeland Security investigators, a unit specializing in smuggling, were gathering evidence inside the trailer, officials said.
San Antonio is a major transit point for migrants making their way from Texas to locations in the United States. Tens of thousands of migrants have passed through the city in recent months, according to immigrant advocates.
For more than a year, Mr. Abbott has been pouring billions of dollars in government funding to increase the presence of Texas State Police and National Guard soldiers at the border. But efforts have failed to stem the flow of migrants from Mexico to seek asylum or, in other cases, to flee the authorities and enter the country illegally.
Earlier on Monday, Mr Abbott advertised his government’s efforts on Twitter, posting statistics on the number of migrants caught. Mr Abbott’s office did not immediately comment on the death near San Antonio before the governor returned to Twitter to confirm the death and attack President Biden, a Democrat whom Mr Abbott is trying to blame for the large number of migrants arriving.
Ruby Chavez, a 53-year-old housewife who lives about a mile from where the truck was found, heard about the discovery on television and then saw a helicopter spinning overhead. She came to the place with her husband Ruben to pray.
Ruby and Ruben Chavez, in the center, went to the place to pray on Monday. Credit … Lisa Kranz for The New York Times
The area was a place known to locals as a “return place” for migrants, the couple said.
“You can say they just came here. We see them with backpacks or asking for food or money, “said Ms. Chavez. “It’s sad. And now I hear there are children.”
Her husband added: “They know this area. They jump off the train and pick them up. ”
Dozens of police and firefighters gathered around the scene on Quintana Road, where the truck was found, a road sandwiched between train tracks and rescue workers that feels rural, even though it is within the city limits. There are several farms nearby.
In recent days, law enforcement officials at the border and in nearby counties have expressed concern about the number of migrants arriving in Texas, which has long been one of the most trafficked borders for migrants. Federal officials recorded a record number of illegal crossings across the southern border for the year, with more than 44,000 registered last month in the area around Del Rio and Eagle Pass, the border town closest to San Antonio.
Smugglers often transport large numbers of migrants in trailers, vans, or SUVs after meeting them in remote areas once they have been able to enter the United States.
One of the deadliest cases of smuggling occurred in 2003, when sheriff’s deputies found the bodies of 17 migrants, including a 7-year-old boy, in an overheated trailer in Victoria, a city in South Texas. When officers found the trailer at a truck stop, they found that the migrants locked inside had tried to drill holes in the air so they could breathe. Another migrant later died at the hospital.
In 2017, 10 men died in San Antonio after riding in a tractor-trailer packed with about 200 migrants who had no food, water or fresh air for hours. Nearly 30 more people were hospitalized and the driver was sentenced to life in prison for his involvement in the smuggling operation.
Accidents near the border are also common, sometimes during harassment by law enforcement.
In 2012, a Ford pickup truck packed with more than 20 undocumented migrants hit two trees in South Texas, killing 15 people. In March 2021, 13 people were killed in a remote area of Southern California when a crowded Ford Expedition crashed into a tractor trailer. And last August, at least 10 people were killed and 20 others injured in a minibus crash in South Texas.
Memorial to the place where 13 migrants were killed in a collision of an SUV and a tractor trailer near Holtville, California, in 2021. Credit … Ariana Dresler for The New York Times
In May, agents detained more than 239,000 migrants at the border, a record for all time, including people who had already tried to enter before. The United States is pursuing a public health emergency policy, known as Title 42, which has led to the return of about half of migrants to Mexico or back to their home countries.
However, an increasing number of migrants from India, Russia, Senegal and elsewhere cannot be removed quickly because their countries will not accept them and they are allowed to enter the United States. At the border, they are placed in deportation proceedings and are notified to appear in court or report to immigration authorities inland.
“This terrible tragedy is a reminder that we need a safe and orderly way for people to seek asylum,” said Joaquin Castro, a Democrat from San Antonio. “The continued use of Title 42 has made desperate people even more desperate.”
The policy also encouraged migrants to repeatedly try to cross the border if they failed on their first attempt, say immigration analysts, one of the factors behind the escalating number of crossings over the past year.
In addition to the lone adults who typically make such crossings, thousands of families and children arrive daily from Central America, driven by violence, natural disasters, and the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
There has also been a jump in the number of single adults from Mexico and Central America seeking entry into the United States, often following treacherous routes to avoid detection by the authorities.
It is not clear where the people found on Monday came from.
Miriam Jordan and Eliza Fawcett contributed to the reports.
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