53 Migrants Found Dead Inside a Texas Truck

53 Migrants Found Dead Inside a Texas Truck…

On Tuesday, June 28th, Texas authorities released a statement saying they had found an abandoned tractor-trailer truck in an industrial area near San Antonio, Texas. Inside the truck, officials found 53 dead bodies of migrants.

San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said, ”Patients were hot to the touch and suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion.”

The local authorities received a 911 call on Monday, June 27th from a passerby who was stopped by a panicking migrant who had just escaped from the stuffy truck and asked for help. 

The road that the truck was abandoned on is known as “the mouth of the wolf” and often reaches sweltering temperatures in the Texas sun. According to the National Weather Service, the temperatures on Monday were high and ranged between high 90’s – low 100s.

There wasn’t any visible air ventilation in the truck nor did the truck seem to have traces of water for the migrants.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said, “This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy.”

It is still unclear to law enforcement how many migrants were transported illegally in that truck although it was estimated that it couldn’t be less than 100 migrants.

According to a Mexican Official and a U.S Customs and Border Protection official, it was as though the migrants were collected after they had just crossed the border and were en route to a place of work. The road is known for being exploited by smugglers.

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Pattie Tanner, Baptist Medical Center spokesperson, mentioned that the few survivors were transferred to that hospital. Currently, there are two people in critical condition and ten people in stable condition that remain hospitalized.

The victims were poured with a “pungent substance” traffickers and smugglers do this to mask the human scent cargo and prevent canine detection.

Deputy Special Agent for Homeland Security Craig Larrabee said that “This is the worst human-smuggling event in the United States. This sheds light on how dangerous human smuggling is.”

A Customs and Border Protection official told reporters that ”The surviving migrants will likely be released into the United States to pursue asylum or other forms of humanitarian relief.”

Two male Mexican citizens have been arrested for “possession of a weapon by an alien illegally in the United States” according to a complaint filed on Monday, June 27th.

They were both placed under surveillance after the investigators traced their car registration to an address in San Antonio, not far away from the industrial area where the truck was found. 

President Joe Biden said, “Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy, and my administration will continue to do everything possible to stop human smugglers and traffickers from taking advantage of people who are seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry.”