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On Monday, authorities in San Antonio, Texas, discovered the bodies of at least 46 migrants in a tractor-trailer along the city's southern outskirts. According to the New York Times, San Antonio authorities suspect that 46 migrants died in an attempt to illegally cross the US-Mexico border, which is only 160 miles from the city.
Authorities suspect that the harsh Texas climate, which has recently been facing high humidity, was most likely the primary cause of death among the migrants. According to WIO News, autopsies corroborated this, stating that many of the victims had died of heat stroke.
In an official statement, the city's fire chief, Charles Hood, discussed what authorities had found at the scene.
Hood said:
"The patients that we saw were hot to the touch. They were suffering from exhaustion, no signs of water in the vehicle. There was also no working air conditioning unit on the vehicle."
He added:
"We're not supposed to open up a truck and see stacks of bodies in there, none of us come to work imagining that."
He did, however, add that the survivors, who were transported to the hospital, did manage to survive.
According to KSAT, authorities and paramedics arrived at the scene on Monday when the tractor-trailer was discovered in the remote outskirts of the city. Investigations are still ongoing, and San Antonio authorities told the media that they are still searching for the vehicle's driver, who was missing from the scene.
Cross-border trafficking in San Antonio
The recent tragedy is not unprecedented for the city, which has seen similar cases due to its proximity to the border.
In July 2017, San Antonio authorities arrested an alleged smuggler who had been linked to the accidental deaths of 10 migrants whose bodies were left in a tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot.
According to the Texas Tribune, San Antonio has seen an unsustainable surge in migrants, both legal and undocumented, since at least 2019. This led to Border Patrol Facilities becoming overwhelmed, with the city building an additional migrant facility to compensate.
However, the situation is still unsustainable, as state resources and infrastructure are still insufficient to manage the influx. The high demand to cross the US-Mexico border has also empowered various criminal gangs that run smuggling operations. These exploitative networks are known to herd migrants in unsafe environments, leading to incidents such as the recent tragedy.
The Texas Tribune reported that while border authorities claim to be fighting drug cartels and smuggling networks, they essentially arrest undocumented migrants for misdemeanor charges.
In an official statement, former Border Patrol section chief Victor Manjarrez said that to stop border crime, authorities must focus on gangs and criminal networks rather than the undocumented migrants who often end up as their victims.
