Dozens found dead in an abandoned trailer found in San Antonio, Texas
Dozens of people were found dead after a tractor trailer containing alleged migrant workers was abandoned in a remote area of San Antonio.
Damien Henderson, USA TODAY
At least 51 people were killed and several others were hospitalized on Tuesday after an abandoned tugboat trailer was found in San Antonio amid heat, which authorities call probably the deadliest smuggling incident in the country so far.
Bexar County Commissioner Rebecca Clay-Flores said the death toll had risen to 51 during a press conference Tuesday afternoon. Initially, 46 people were found dead in the trailer on Monday, and 16 people were hospitalized, authorities said.
Ruben Minuti Zanata, Consul General of Mexico in San Antonio, said on Tuesday that three of the hospitalized patients had died, leaving 13 still hospitalized, including a 16-year-old.
At least two of those 13 are in critical or serious condition, he said. San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the victims had “families who were probably trying to find a better life.”
“This is nothing but a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg said. “It’s a horror that surpasses anything we’ve experienced before.”
Here’s what we know right now:
The death toll is the highest ever since a smuggling incident in the United States, according to Craig Laraby, a special agent in charge of internal security investigations in San Antonio.
The crossing of migrants to cross the southern border of the United States is dangerous in nature and hundreds of deaths are reported each year. Smuggling is one of several ways migrants make their way to the United States
The International Organization for Migration, which is part of the United Nations, said 651 people died trying to cross the US-Mexico border in 2021 – the highest number since 2014.
Authorities met 239,416 migrants at the southwestern border in May – 180,597 more than the same time last year, according to the US Customs and Border Protection.
The San Antonio incident is one of several smuggling incidents along the southern border of the United States that have resulted in deaths over the years:
- July 23, 2017: Eight immigrants were found dead in a hot trailer in a parking lot in San Antonio Walmart. Two others later died in hospitals. The driver was sentenced to life in prison.
- May 14, 2003: 19 migrants die in an abandoned, refrigerated dairy truck while traveling from South Texas to Houston. The truck driver was eventually sentenced to 34 years in federal prison.
- March 3, 2021: 13 suspected migrants were killed when an SUV collided with a tractor trailer in California.
- August 4, 2021: 10 people die and another 20 are injured after a minibus carrying 29 suspected migrants crashes in South Texas.
The truck was discovered after a city worker heard a cry for help from the truck just before 6pm on Monday, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said.
Police found a body on the ground outside the trailer, and hours later sacks of corpses were scattered on the ground in front of the truck.
The passengers in the truck suffered from heat stroke and heat exhaustion, said the chief of the fire department in San Antonio, Charles Hood. There were no signs of water or a working air conditioner in the truck.
Hood said the surviving passengers were too weak to get out of the truck at temperatures approaching 100 degrees on Monday.
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Twelve adults and four children were initially hospitalized, Hood said Monday. None of the dead were children.
U.S. authorities did not immediately disclose further details about the condition of the wounded or the home countries of the people found in the truck.
According to the US Immigration and Customs Service, the identified victims are from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. By Tuesday afternoon, medical experts had identified a potential 34 victims, but were taking additional steps, such as fingerprints, to verify their identities, Clay-Flores said.
According to Zanatta, the Mexican forensic service estimates that 27 of the dead were believed to be Mexican citizens based on the documents they carried.
Zanata said he has received 30 requests from Mexicans who are looking for relatives who have gone missing and believe their missing relatives may be linked to the group found in the trailer.
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The driver of the truck and two other people were arrested, according to the American representative Henry Kuelar from Texas.
He said the truck passed through a border checkpoint northeast of Laredo, Texas, on Interstate 35. Cuelar did not know if migrants were inside the truck when he cleared the checkpoint.
Investigators tracked the truck’s registration to a residence in San Antonio and detained two Mexican men for possession of a weapon, according to criminal complaints filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The complaints do not contain specific allegations related to the deaths.
At least one of the suspects, an American, has been hospitalized, Zanata said on Tuesday.
The US Department of Homeland Security has promised to investigate the incident and the apparent smuggling operation. An internal security investigation has detained three people believed to be part of a smuggling plot, the US Immigration and Customs Service confirmed in a statement to USA TODAY. Their names are not reported, nor information about the operation.
In a statement Tuesday, President Joe Biden called the “tragic loss of life” in San Antonio “horrifying and heartbreaking.”
“While we are still learning all the facts about what happened and the Interior Ministry is conducting the investigation, the initial reports are that this tragedy was caused by smugglers or traffickers of people who are not concerned about the life they are threatening and exploiting. make a profit, “he said.
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Contribution: Associated Press
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