The death toll from a sweltering trailer found in San Antonio city of Texas rose to at least 50 on Tuesday morning.
The bodies of 46 migrants were found in the back of a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, official said. This is one of the deadliest smuggling incident of its kind in U.S. history.
At least 16 others, 12 adults and four children, were taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses. But four died later on Tuesday in hospital.
“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said at a news conference. Fire chief Charles Hood said the patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water or air conditioning was found in the trailer.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said the authorities were alerted about the truck around 6 p.m. local time by an individual who heard cries for help in the area. The fire department official said they found “stacks of bodies” and no signs of water in the truck, which was found next to railroad tracks in a remote area on the city’s southern outskirts.
Biden calls Texas tragedy “horrifying and heartbreaking”
President Joe Biden called the deaths “horrifying and heartbreaking” and said initial reports were that smugglers or human traffickers were to blame.
Biden vowed to crack down on human smugglers and traffickers. He said in a statement: “Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy, and my administration will continue to do everything possible to stop human smugglers and traffickers from taking advantage of people who are seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry.”
Tragic reminder to to stop migrant deaths
The tragedy also led to fresh political attacks. “These deaths are on Biden,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, tweeted. “They are a result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”
Experts said that the birder tragedy is also a reminder how U.S. officials have struggled to find the right strategy for patrolling the border and preventing migrant deaths. Migrants often rely on riskier routes to avoid detection, or put themselves in the hands of smugglers because of strict border policies.
“With the border shut as tightly as it is today for migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, people have been pushed into more and more dangerous routes. Truck smuggling is a way up,” tweeted Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council.
Nationalities of victims
At least 22 of the deceased were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras, according to Roberto Velasco Álvarez, head of the North America department in Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department. Among the dead were 39 males and 11 females, said Police Chief William McManus.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said on Twitter he was “heartbroken by the tragic loss of life” in San Antonio.
Influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border
The horrific incident comes amid a record influx of migrants across the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures show that immigration arrests rose to the highest levels in May. CBP made 239,416 arrests along the border last month. The latest CBP figures show growing numbers arriving from countries including Turkey, India, and Russia while large numbers of migrants ae from Mexico, Central America, Cuba and Haiti.
Smuggling organizations working inside the United States sometimes pack migrants into trucks and trailers after they have crossed the borde to sneak them past highway checkpoints.
San Antonio has been the scene of previous migrant deaths. In 2017, 10 migrants died after being trapped inside a truck parked at a San Antonio Walmart, while 19 migrants were also found dead in a truck in the city in 2003, Texas Tribune reported.
