There are already 3 detained for the death of at least 46 migrants in a truck with trailer in San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO – The bodies of at least 46 people believed to be immigrants who crossed the United States from Mexico were found dead Monday in and around a trailer that had been abandoned outside San Antonio, state and municipal officials said.

At least 16 others, including children, were taken alive to local hospitals but suffered from heat exhaustion and apparent dehydration, city officials said during a press conference at the scene of what appeared to be one of the worst migrant deaths in the country. United States. in recent years.

“The plight of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told reporters on Monday evening.

“But tonight we are faced with a horrible human tragedy.”

San Antonio Police Department Chief William McManus said three people were taken into custody.

Earlier that day, officers were looking for the vehicle driver, who appeared to have abandoned the truck at some point before it was discovered in a remote area near railroad tracks and automobile scrap yards southwest of downtown.

McManus did not say if the driver was among those arrested.

The truck was discovered by a worker at a nearby company who “heard a cry for help and went out to investigate,” McManus said, adding that the worker found the trailer doors partially open and inside they found more bodies.

Most of the bodies, including men and women, were found inside the truck at around 6:00 PM, although at least one was outside the vehicle.

Fire Chief Charles Hood said the people who were transported to the hospitals were “hot to the touch” and appeared to be suffering from “heatstroke, heat exhaustion.”

The truck, although designed to be refrigerated, “it didn’t have an air conditioner visible that it worked, “he said.

Texas state officials, who already handle record levels of migrant crossings from Mexico, have braced for another wave this spring and summer.

All victims are believed to have illegally crossed the United States and been taken north.

The nearest border crossing is approximately 230 kilometers away.

“These deaths are blame BidenRepublican Governor Greg Abbott said in a brief statement on Twitter.

“They are the result of theirs deadly open frontier policies. They show the deadly consequences of their refusal to enforce the law ”.

Authorities did not say how the people died, but suggested the extreme heat was a cause.

San Antonio and other Texas cities experienced June heat at or near record levels.

The temperature in the city on Monday was over 37 degrees.

“Imagine being abandoned inside an 18-wheeled vehicle left to die,” rep Tony Gonzales, whose boarding school stretches from the outskirts of San Antonio to the border, wrote on Twitter. “Will @AliMayorkas mention their names too?” added, referring to Alejandro Mayorcas, the Secretary for Internal Security.

A spokesperson for the Texas State Police questioned the San Antonio Police Department, which did not respond to requests for comment.

The Homeland Security Department was supposed 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.

Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a smuggling unit, were gathering evidence inside the trailer, authorities said.

San Antonio is a major transit point for migrants going from Texas to other parts of the United States.

Tens of thousands of immigrants have passed through the city in recent months, according to immigrant supporters.

For more than a year, Abbott has invested billions of dollars in state funds to increase the presence of the Texas State Police and National Guard soldiers at the border.

But the effort failed to stem the flow of migrants crossing from Mexico to seek asylum or, in other cases, to evade the authorities and enter the country illegally.

On Monday, Abbott promoted his administration’s efforts on Twitter, posting statistics on the number of immigrants detained.

Abbott’s office did not immediately comment on the deaths near San Antonio before the governor returned to Twitter to confirm the deaths and attack President Joe Biden, a Democrat, whom Abbott tried to blame for the large number of migrants arriving. .

Ruby Chavez, 53, a housewife who lives about a mile from where the truck was found, heard about the discovery on television and then saw a helicopter fly overhead.

She came to the place with her husband, Reuben, to pray.

The area was a place known to locals as a “starting point” for immigrants, the couple said.

“You can tell they have just arrived. We see them with backpacks or they beg for food or money,” said Chavez.

“It’s sad. And now I’ve heard there are children.”

Her husband added: “They know this area. They jump off the train and pick them up. “

Dozens of policemen and firefighters gathered around the scene along Quintana Road where the truck was found, a road that has a rural feel despite being within the city limits.

Several farms are nearby.

In recent days, law enforcement along the border and in neighboring counties have expressed concern over the number of migrants arriving in Texas, which has long been one of the borders with the highest migrant smuggling.

Federal officials have registered a record amount of illegal crossings across the southern border at this point of the year, with more than 44,000 registered last month in the area around Del Rio and only Eagle Pass, the closest border town to San Antonio.

Smugglers often transport large numbers of migrants in trailers, pickup trucks, or SUVs after meeting them in remote areas once they have managed to enter the United States.

One of the deadliest smuggling cases occurred in 2003, when sheriff’s agents discovered the bodies of 17 migrants, including a 7-year-old boy in an overheated trailer in Victoria, a city in southern Texas.

When officials spotted the trailer at a truck stop, they found migrants trapped inside had tried drill holes of air to breathe.

Another migrant later died in hospital.

In 2017, 10 men died in San Antonio after traveling for hours on a trailer filled with 200 migrants without food, water or fresh air.

Another 30 people were hospitalized and the driver was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the smuggling operation.

Its shock they are also common near the border, sometimes during law enforcement chases.

In 2012, a Ford pickup truck filled with more than 20 unauthorized immigrants crashed into two trees in southern Texas, killing 15 people.

In March 2021, 13 people were killed in a remote stretch of Southern California when an overcrowded Ford Expedition got in the way of a tractor trailer.

And last August, at least 10 people were killed and 20 more injured after a pickup truck crashed in southern Texas.

In May, officers arrested more than 239,000 migrants along the border, the all-time high, including people who had attempted to enter earlier.

The United States has implemented a public health emergency policy known as Title 42which resulted in approx half of the migrants are repatriated in Mexico or returning to their countries of origin.

However, an increasing number of immigrants from India, Russia, Senegal and elsewhere cannot be turned away quickly because their countries do not accept them and can enter the United States.

At the border, they undergo deportation procedures and are advised to appear in court or appear before the immigration authorities within the country.

“This horrific tragedy reminds us that we need a safe and orderly way for people to apply for asylum,” said Democratic Representative Joaquin Castro of San Antonio.

“The continued use of title 42 made desperate people even more desperate.”

The policy has also given immigrants an incentive to make repeated attempts to cross the border if they were unsuccessful on the first try, immigration analysts say, a factor in the increase in the number of crossings over the past year.

In addition to the single adults who usually make those crossings, thousands of families and children arrive every day from Central America, fueled by the violence, natural disasters and the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.

There has also been an increase in the number of single adults from Mexico and Central America trying to enter the United States, often following treacherous routes to evade detection by the authorities.

It is not clear where the people who were found on Monday came from.

Miriam Jordan and Eliza Fawcett contributed to this report.

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