Probe on trailer deaths begins
WASHINGTON: The death toll of undocumented migrants who were abandoned in a scorching-hot trailer in Texas rose to 51 on Tuesday, as President Joe Biden blamed “criminal” professional smugglers for the tragedy.
Rebeca Clay-Flores, a Bexar County official, reported the new tally of “39 men and 12 women” dead, following the Monday discovery of the tractortrailer on an isolated road in her district.
She did not say how many survivors remained in hospital, but the number could be around 11 based on initial figures that officials gave, including possibly four children.
The Department of Homeland Security announced it had opened a criminal investigation, as Mr Biden took aim at human smuggling gangs.
“The tragic loss of life in San Antonio, Texas that took place yesterday is horrifying and heartbreaking,” he said in a statement.
“This incident underscores the need to go after the multi-billion dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths,” he said.
According to Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, of the dead whose identities are known, 22 were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras.
“It’s a tremendous misfortune,” he told reporters.
It was the deadliest single incident involving migrants along the southern border in memory, and drew more attention to the risks that hundreds of thousands of people face seeking to enter the United States from Mexico without permission.
On Monday, the high temperature in San Antonio was 39.4 degrees Celsius, and the temperature in the unvented trailer would have been much higher.
By Tuesday afternoon, authorities had removed the trailer from where it had been abandoned with its human cargo, on a narrow road sandwiched between train tracks and auto junkyards.
Replacing it were makeshift crosses adorned with artificial flowers.
“I feel that if these people walk hundreds of miles to get over here, it wouldn’t hurt us to walk maybe one mile to put the crosses and candles,” said Angelita Olvera, who lives nearby to where the bodies were found.
“Hopefully, whoever had them in the trailer will pay the consequences,” she said.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said authorities were first alerted to the trailer by an emergency call at about 5.50pm local time on Monday.
“A worker who works in one of the buildings up here behind me heard a cry for help,” he told reporters.
The worker “came out to investigate, found a trailer with the doors partially open, opened them up to take a look, and found a number of deceased individuals inside”, Mr McManus said.
Three people have been taken into custody but officials gave no further details.
The tragedy came five years after 10 migrants were found dead in a trailer with broken air conditioning and clogged ventilation holes near San Antonio.
In recent weeks Border Patrol officers have discovered other attempts to bring undocumented travellers into the country in large trucks.
On June 14, 80 people from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were discovered inside a tractor-trailer when it was inspected by agents at a highway checkpoint north of Laredo, a border hub in south Texas.
Three weeks earlier, agents intercepted a trailer with 48 people inside near Sierra Blanca in western Texas.