50 Migrants Dead After Overheated Truck Is Abandoned in Texas
From NY Times:
The death toll from a scorching-hot tractor-trailer found in the Texas sun rose to at least 50 on Tuesday morning, with three victims confirmed dead at a hospital in San Antonio. The authorities were working to identify the victims and were searching surrounding fields for other passengers who might have jumped or fallen from the truck before it came to a stop.
The bodies of at least 46 people believed to be migrants were found on Monday in and around the 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. Three later died at Baptist Medical Center, a spokeswoman confirmed. Where the 50th victim died was not immediately clear.
Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said on Twitter on Tuesday that the dead included 22 Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans. Others have not yet been identified.
At least three bodies were found strewn along the roadway, with the farthest about 75 yards from the truck, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. It was possible, the official said, that those found outside had died inside the truck and fallen out when its door opened.
Officials did not identify a cause of death, but suggested that extreme heat most likely contributed. The truck did not have operating air-conditioning, officials said, and the temperature reached 101 degrees in San Antonio on Monday.
The city’s fire chief, Charles Hood, said the people who were transported to hospitals were “hot to the touch.” An employee from a nearby business discovered the truck around 6 p.m. after hearing a cry for help, William McManus, the chief of the San Antonio Police Department, said on Monday.
Border crossings are always dangerous, with hundreds of migrants often packed into vehicles, sometimes without water, fresh air or food. Many have been killed in crashes, while others have overheated. All of the victims on Monday were believed to have crossed into the United States illegally from Mexico.
In other developments:
Three people have been taken into custody, the police said, although they released few details. Chief McManus said in an interview with The New York Times on Tuesday afternoon that the driver of the tractor-trailer had been detained while leaving the scene on foot. He said that the driver, whom he did not identify, was stopped by officers in a nearby field and was currently in federal custody.
The Department of Homeland Security was expected to take over the investigation. Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a unit specialized in smuggling, were collecting evidence inside the trailer on Monday, officials said.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said his country’s government was ready to support the investigation into the migrant deaths. “I want to express my deepest condolences to the families of Mexican, Guatemalan and Honduran migrants who died yesterday asphyxiated in a trailer,” he said, “a tremendous misfortune.”
Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio called the deaths “a horrific human tragedy.” Immigrants making their way 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,” the mayor said.
The deaths came as state officials are bracing for a new surge in illegal crossings. Federal officials have 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 apprehended a record high of more than 239,000 migrants along the entire border.