46 dead in Texas truck; 4 more die later
Forty-six people believed to be migrants were found dead on Monday after being abandoned in a semitrailer truck on a remote road in San Antonio in the US state of Texas.
Sixteen others — 12 adults and four children — were taken to hospitals, where four more later died, according to San Antonio police and fire officials.
The identities of the victims and their country or countries of origin were not immediately known. Those who were found alive were suffering from heatstroke and exhaustion, and there was no sign of water in the refrigerated trailer and no visible working air conditioning unit, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said. About 60 firefighters were at the scene.
San Antonio temperatures rose to 38.3 C on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.
Three people were in police custody, but it was unclear whether they were involved in the deaths, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said on Monday night.
Police received a call on Monday evening from a person working nearby who heard a cry for help from the semitruck, approached it and saw bodies inside the trailer, whose doors were partially open, McManus said.
The Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation after being alerted by San Antonio Police to “an alleged human smuggling event”, a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesperson said on Monday.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said on Twitter, “Migrants seeking asylum should always be treated as a humanitarian crisis, but this evening we’re facing a horrific human tragedy.”
Some advocates for migrants drew a link to the White House’s border policies. Aaron ReichlinMelnick, policy director at the American Immigration Council, wrote that he had been dreading such a tragedy for months.
“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,” he said on Twitter.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott blamed US President Joe Biden for the tragedy on Monday night.
“These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies,” Abbott said.
In 2017, 10 migrants died in a truck carrying 39 people in San Antonio. In 2003, 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of the city.