Two people are charged after the deaths of at least 51 people who were found in the trailer of a tugboat in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday after an alleged attempt to smuggle migrants.
The latest: 39 men and 12 women have died in the heat tragedy, 11 survivors are being treated in hospitals and some are in critical condition, officials said in the New York Times. A Mexican government official tweeted that at least 22 of the dead were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala and two from Honduras.
- Officials said three people were detained after their deaths, including Juan Francisco D’Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D’Luna-Mendes, both Mexican nationals accused of delaying their visas.
- Both have been charged with illegal possession of firearms following a search of a San Antonio residence, according to criminal appeals filed in San Antonio Federal Court on Tuesday.
What to watch: No charges directly related to the death have been filed since Wednesday morning.
Driving the news: An ICE spokesman said in a statement to the media on Monday that Homeland Security Investigators (HSI) had responded to a call from San Antonio police about an “alleged human smuggling event” in the area and confirmed the deaths of more of 40 people at the scene.
- Officials say the three detainees are “part of a smuggling plot,” a spokesman for the immigration and customs services said on Tuesday.
Click to enlarge: San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told a news conference near the site of the tragedy, not far from Lakeland Air Force Base, that patients were “hot to the touch.”
- “They were suffering from heat stroke, heat exhaustion. There were no traces of water in the vehicle,” Hood said.
- “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible air conditioning on this platform,” he added.
“We shouldn’t open a truck and see piles of bodies there. None of us come to work imagining this. ”- San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood
Background: Hundreds of migrants have died at the southern border, with 557 deaths reported by the US border patrol in fiscal 2021. But this is one of the deadliest border incidents with migrants to occur en masse in modern history, according to the AP.
- In 2017, 10 migrants died in a hot trailer on a tractor at Walmart in San Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in another heat-related incident southeast of the city.
What they say: President Biden said in a statement Tuesday: “[I]Initial reports indicate that this tragedy was caused by smugglers or traffickers of people who do not take into account the lives they threaten and exploit to make a living. “
- The exploitation of vulnerable people for profit is shameful, as is the political reputation surrounding the tragedy, and my administration will continue to do its utmost to stop smugglers and human traffickers from taking advantage of people who want to enter the United States between ports of entry. “Biden added.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who made immigration the focal point of his re-election campaign, tweeted Monday that the death was the result of Biden’s “deadly open border policy.”
- Abbott’s rival for Democratic governor, Beto O’Rourke, tweeted Monday: “We need urgent action – dismantling human smuggling channels and replacing them with expanded routes for legal migration that reflect our values and meet the country’s needs. us ”.
It is worth noting: Meteorologists of the National Weather Service said that this is the warmest June in San Antonio in history, despite the coming days of the month, reports Texas Tribune.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with new details everywhere.
Add Comment