Horror in Texas as 50 migrants die in back of 102F truck
A MUFFLED cry for help led to the discovery of scores of dead migrants abandoned in a lorry on a remote back road in Texas.
As the city of San Antonio sweltered in a record 102F heat, a gruesome scene emerged inside the trailer of stacks of bodies that were ‘hot to the touch’.
This latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled from Mexico to the US came to light after a worker heard a cry just before 6pm on Monday, police chief William McManus said.
While emergency services recovered 46 bodies at the scene, 16 survivors suffering from heatrelated conditions – including four children – had to be helped from the trailer and taken to hospital.
Four died later, bringing the death toll to 50. Fire chief Charles Hood said the patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer.
‘They were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion,’ Chief Hood said.
‘It was a refrigerated tractortrailer, but there was no visible working [air-conditioning] unit.’
San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg said the 50 who died had ‘families who were likely trying to find a better life’.
‘This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,’ he added.
President Joe Biden, briefed as he flew to the Nato summit in Madrid, said that the deaths were ‘horrifying and heartbreaking’.
‘While we are still learning all the facts about what happened... initial reports are that this tragedy was caused by smugglers or human traffickers who have no regard for the lives they endanger and exploit to make a profit,’ he said after arriving in Spain.
Three people suspected of being part of the ‘smuggling conspiracy’ were in custody last night, US Customs officials said.
Mr Biden added: ‘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.’
Earlier Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican running for re-election, laid the blame for the tragedy on the Democratic President: ‘These deaths are on Biden’, he tweeted. ‘They are a result of his deadly open border policies.’
Migrants – largely from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – have been expelled more than two million times under a Trump-era rule continued by Mr Biden that denies them a chance to seek asylum but encourages repeat attempts with no legal consequences for getting caught.
Southern Texas has long been the busiest area for illegal crossings. Trucks carry migrants through border checkpoints to the closest big city, San Antonio, where the arrivals then disperse.
In May, a record 239,000 undocumented migrants were detained crossing from Mexico.
In 2017 ten migrants died after being trapped in a truck parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. In 2003, the 19 bodies were found in a truck south-east of San Antonio.
‘These deaths are on Biden’