The trailer was abandoned on the outskirts of the Texas city of San Antonio. The Mexican Consul is already moving to the area, reported Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard; there would be at least a dozen people alive.
The lifeless bodies of at least 42 migrants have been found inside an abandoned tractor-trailer on the outskirts of San Antonio, in Texas, various media reported citing local police sources.
In addition, at least a dozen migrants still alive were taken to area hospitals, according to The New York Times, which cited officials who requested anonymity to share details of the case.
The KSAT news cited sources from the San Antonio Police Department who assured that there are 42 lifeless migrant bodies and up to 16 were transferred to hospitals
“Several police vehicles, as well as fire trucks and ambulances, are on Quintana Road, on the southwest side [of the city], where Border Police patrols also began to arrive,” the local media reported at 8:00 p.m., Center time.
“Tragedy in Texas,” Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard expressed on social networks. “Reportedly suffocated in trailer box. Consul en route to the point. Condolences to the victims and their families. We don’t know nationalities yet,” he added.
However, Tony Gonzales, a Republican representing Texas, wrote through his Twitter account that 42 people died inside a trailer on Monday.
“Today in San Antonio it was 102 degrees. Imagine being abandoned inside an 18-wheeler left to die-42 people died today-will Alejandro Mayorkas mention his name?
For his part, the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, used his social networks to criticize the “deadly open border policies” of the president of the United States, Joe Biden.
“At least 42 people found dead inside a truck carrying migrants in Texas. These deaths are on Biden. They are the result of his deadly open border policies. They show the deadly consequences of their refusal to enforce the law,” he posted.
The find is already one of the largest of its kind in recent years. The Washington Post noted that the trailer was found by agents from Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) specializing in human trafficking cases. These agents are the ones leading the investigation, the newspaper reported.
Just a few days ago, the authorities of the North American country confirmed that the number of detentions of migrants on the southern border of the United States increased for the fourth consecutive month in May 2022.
During May, 239,416 migrant detentions were registered, an increase of two percent compared to the 235,478 encounters in April and 33 percent compared to the 180,597 in May 2021, the Office reported on June 16. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The past few months have been the busiest in decades, but comparisons to pre-pandemic levels are difficult to draw because migrants expelled under the public health measure known as Title 42 face no legal consequences, which allows them to try to enter the country on several occasions. Authorities have said that 25 percent of encounters were with people who had been detained at least once in the past year, compared with a 15 percent ratio in the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The administration of President Joe Biden planned to end Title 42 on May 23, but a federal judge in Louisiana blocked the move three days earlier. Since the public health rule went into effect in March 2020, migrants have been expelled more than 2 million times without being given the opportunity to apply for asylum.
More than 40 percent of encounters during May fell under Title 42, almost all of them adults traveling alone. The rule was applied to about one in six who arrived in families with children under 18. Minors unaccompanied by an adult are exempt from the measure.
The increase in arrivals spanned multiple nationalities, even after the number of Ukrainians virtually disappeared after more than 20,000 entered from Mexico during April. The US government reported at the end of that month that Ukrainians traveling through Mexico would no longer be allowed to cross the border.
In addition to its citizens, Mexico receives back migrants from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador who are expelled under Title 42. Costs, distance in relationships, and other factors make it difficult for the United States to repatriate migrants from other nations. .
Cubans, who are rarely prosecuted under Title 42, accounted for the second-most encounters at the border, behind only Mexicans. Many arrivals of people from Colombia, Haiti, and Nicaragua were also recorded.
