46 Migrants Found Dead In San Antonio

The bodies of at least 46 people believed to be migrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico were found dead on Monday in and around a tractor-trailer that had been abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, state and city officials said.

At least 16 others, including children, were taken to local hospitals alive but suffering from heat exhaustion and apparent dehydration, city officials said during a news conference at the scene of what appeared to be one of the worst episodes of migrant death in the United States in recent years.

The number of people migrating globally has steadily risen in the past two decades as poverty, climate change and violence have led people to flee their homelands.

In some cases, like those for Africans seeking to reach Europe or Central Americans trying to reach the United States, the journey has become more dangerous in recent years. They face tighter border policies and more criminal gangs operating smuggling routes.

Responding to news of the migrant deaths near the southern Texas border, Gov. Greg Abbott pointed the blame at what he said were President Biden’s “open border policies.”

Technically, the border remains sealed off to most migrants under a health order imposed in the early days of the pandemic that was designed to stem the flow of the coronavirus. But the policy, known as Title 42, has had the unintended effect of encouraging people to enter the country illegally more than once.

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, facing re-election for a third term in November, has positioned himself as the defender of the country from migrants, making his aggressive stance on unauthorised migration central to his political campaign, even though his policies have been ultimately unsuccessful in stemming the arrival of migrants.

Even though the federal government enforces immigration law, Mr. Abbott has poured billions into sending state police and the National Guard to the border, repurposed state prisons to hold migrants charged with trespassing and set up checkpoints for trucks from Mexico, disrupting international trade.

The number of migrants apprehended while entering the United States through the southern border has risen to the highest level in decades.

In May, encounters between Customs and Border Protection officials and unauthorised migrants near the southern border rose more than 30 percent from a year earlier, according to the agency’s data.

The deaths of at least 51 people found in or near an abandoned truck in San Antonio on Monday were one of the worst episodes of migrant deaths on the southern border in recent years.

The journey north for migrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico is usually dangerous and sometimes fatal. Smugglers often transport large numbers of people in trailers, vans or S.U.V.s through remote areas in sweltering weather. And in recent years, dozens of migrants have died in crashes while travelling north.

Temperatures in San Antonio reached 103 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday before a tractor-trailer was found abandoned on the outskirts of the city with scores of migrants inside or nearby, many of them dead or dying. And a recent heat wave broke records, even for a city that is often extremely hot in the summer

As temperatures climb, migrants near the Mexican border are left more vulnerable to heatstroke, dehydration and death.

Source: NYTimes