Death toll rises to 51 among people found in trailer in San Antonio heat

Authorities identified the nationalities of some of the dozens of people found dead in a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on Monday, with the death toll rising to 51. About a dozen others were taken to hospitals, including four children. Among the dead were 22 Mexicans, seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans, Mexican Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Luis Ebrard Casaubón said in a tweet Tuesday. Ebrard Casaubón did not identify the nationalities of the other victims, who were all apparently migrants. The death count was the highest ever from a smuggling incident in the United States, according to Craig Larrabee, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in San Antonio. “This is a horror that surpasses anything we’ve experienced before,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. “And it’s sadly a preventable tragedy.” Ebrard Casaubón said the Mexican government is coordinating an investigation with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Ebrard Casaubón also said a meeting with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and U.S. President Joe Biden has been set for next month. A San Antonio city worker found the gruesome scene on a back road shortly before 6 p.m. Monday, police Chief William McManus said. Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer and bodies remained inside as authorities responded to the calamity. Those taken to the hospital were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood said. Temperatures in San Antonio on Monday approached 100 degrees. “They were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion,” Hood said. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.” In recent decades, similar tragedies have claimed thousands of lives as people attempt to cross the U.S. border from Mexico. Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of San Antonio. Related:Biden blasts ‘grandstanding’ as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott blames him for 51 migrant deaths The driver of the truck and two other people were arrested, according to U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas. The trailer was gone Tuesday morning, but access to the area where it was found remained blocked. Migrants — largely from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador — have been expelled more than 2 million times under Title 42, a pandemic-era rule in effect since March 2020 that denies a chance to seek asylum but encourages repeat attempts because there are no legal consequences for getting caught. Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the county’s top elected official, said Tuesday that the truck appeared to come from Laredo, a border city more than 150 miles to the south. “They had just parked it on the side of the road,” Wolff said. “Apparently had mechanical problems and left it there.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 557 deaths on the Southwest border in the 12 months ending Sept. 30, more than double the 247 deaths reported in the previous year and the highest since it began keeping track in 1998. Most were related to heat exposure. CBP has not published a death tally for this year but said the Border Patrol performed more than 14,000 “search-and-rescue missions” through May, exceeding the nearly 13,000 missions during the previous 12-month period. “This is a human tragedy,” said Mario Carrillo, the Texas director of America’s Voice, an advocacy group. “At least 50 people have lost their lives, each of whom had dreams, families and futures. They each represented the most basic human desire — to make the most of their time on this earth to make a contribution to their loved ones. They risked everything for a better life.” The Associated Press contributed to this report. For more information, contact us at: http://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/index.html