SAN ANTONIO – A day after dozens of people were found dead in the back of a tractor trailer in the heat of the scorching Texas sun, authorities worked to identify the victims and unleash one of the deadliest border crossing attempts in years.
The bodies of at least 46 people suspected of being migrants were found dead Monday in and around an abandoned tractor trailer on the outskirts of San Antonio, officials said. At least 16 others, including children, were taken to hospitals alive but suffering from apparent heat exhaustion and dehydration.
Officials did not identify a cause of death, but suggested that extreme heat most likely contributed. The truck did not have air conditioning, officials said, and temperatures hit 101 degrees in San Antonio on Monday. The city’s fire chief, Charles Hood, said the people being transported to hospitals were “hot to the touch”.
Three people have been arrested, police said. It was not yet known whether the driver, whom police were searching for after the truck was abandoned near railroad tracks and car storage yards southwest of downtown, was detained under the.
An employee of a nearby business discovered the truck around 6 p.m., after hearing a call for help, William McManus, head of the San Antonio Police Department, said Monday. The worker found that the doors of the trailer were partially open, with several bodies inside and at least one outside, he said.
Border crossings are always dangerous, with hundreds of migrants often packed into vehicles, sometimes without water, fresh air or food. Many died in accidents, while others overheated.
The Department of Homeland Security is expected to take over the investigation. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a unit that specializes in smuggling, gathered evidence in the trailer on Monday, officials said.
It was one of the worst episodes of migrant deaths in recent years in the United States, which came as government officials prepared for a new upsurge in illegal crossings. Federal officials recorded a record number across the southern border for this point in the year, with more than 44,000 last month just in the area around Del Rio and Eagle Pass, the border closest to San Antonio, which is about 150 miles away.
In May, agents seized a record high of more than 239,000 migrants across the border.
All the victims reportedly crossed into the United States illegally from Mexico on Monday.
Immigrants traveling to places across the United States often pass through San Antonio, as tens of thousands have done in recent months, according to immigrant advocates.
“The plight of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told reporters late Monday. “But tonight we are dealing with a terrible human tragedy.”
The number of illegal crossings has increased in part as a result of a policy introduced in March 2020, known as Title 42, which allowed border agents to expel most migrants quickly without giving them a chance to apply for asylum. . Introduced as a pandemic security measure, it has led to more migrants returning to Mexico or flying back to their home countries.
But it has had the unintended effect of encouraging people to make multiple attempts to enter the country illegally, as those detained in the United States are returned without facing criminal penalties. About three out of 10 adults who tried to cross did more than eleven, and some of them tried as many as 10 times, officials said.