At least 16 others, including children, were taken alive to local hospitals but suffered from heat exhaustion and apparent dehydration, city officials said during a news conference at the site of one of the worst immigrant deaths in the United States in recent years. “The situation of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nuremberg told reporters late Monday. “But tonight we are dealing with a horrible human tragedy.” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said three people had been arrested. Earlier in the day, police were searching for the driver of the vehicle, who appeared to have abandoned the truck shortly before it was discovered in a remote area near railways and car rescue yards southwest of the city center. Chief McManus did not say if the driver was among those arrested. The truck was discovered by a worker from a nearby company who “heard a cry for help and went out to investigate,” said McManus, adding that the worker found the trailer doors partially open and found a number of corpses inside. Most of the bodies, including men and women, were found in the truck around 6pm, although at least one was outside the vehicle. Fire Chief Charles Hood said people taken to hospitals were “hot to the touch” and appeared to be suffering from “heat stroke, heat exhaustion”. The truck, although designed for cooling, “did not have a visible, A / C module,” he said. Government officials in Texas, who already manage record levels of immigrant crossings from Mexico, are preparing for a new surge this spring and summer. All the victims are believed to have crossed into the United States illegally and were transported north. The nearest border crossing is about 140 miles away.
“The situation of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis,” said San Antonio Mayor Ron Nuremberg. Credit … Eric Gay / Associated Press “These deaths are for Biden,” Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, said in a brief statement on Twitter. “It is a result of his deadly policies on open borders. “They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.” Officials did not say how the people died, but said the heat was the cause. San Antonio and other cities across Texas experienced record-breaking or near-June heat. The temperature in the city on Monday had exceeded 100 degrees. “Imagine being abandoned in an 18-wheeler, left to die,” wrote on Twitter spokesman Tony Gonzalez, whose congressional district extends from the outskirts of San Antonio to the border. “Will @AliMayorkas mention their names?” he added, referring to Alejandro Mallorca, the secretary of internal security. A Texas police spokesman referred questions to the San Antonio Police Department, which did not respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of Internal Security was expected to undertake the investigation. The federal agency said in a statement that it was working with state and local authorities to investigate the deaths. Internal Security Investigators, a unit specializing in smuggling, were gathering information inside the trailer, officials said. San Antonio is an important transit point for immigrants starting from Texas to places in the United States. Tens of thousands of migrants have passed through the city in recent months, according to immigrant supporters. For more than a year, Mr. Abbott has poured billions of dollars into state funding to increase the presence of Texas State Police and National Guard soldiers at the border. However, the effort failed to stem the flow of migrants passing through Mexico either to seek asylum or, in other cases, to evade the authorities and enter the country illegally. Earlier Monday, Mr Abbott touted his government’s efforts on Twitter, posting statistics on the number of immigrants arrested. Mr Abbott’s office did not immediately comment on the deaths near San Antonio before the governor returned to Twitter to confirm the deaths and attacked President Biden, a Democrat whom Mr Abbott tried to blame for the large number of migrants who arrived. Ruby Chavez, 53, a housewife who lives about a mile from where the truck was found, heard about the discovery on television and then saw a helicopter stirring. She came on stage with her husband, Reuben, to pray. Ruby and Ruben Chavez, center, went on stage to pray on Monday. Credit … Lisa Krantz for the New York Times The area was a location known to locals as a “landing point” for migrants, the couple said. “It simply came to our notice then. “We see them with backpacks or asking for food or money,” said Ms. Chavez. “It’s sad. And now I hear there are children.” Her husband added: “They know this area. They jump off the train and take them. ” Dozens of police and firefighters gathered around the scene along Quintana Street, where the truck was found, a road between train tracks and car rescue yards that has a rural feel even though it is within the city limits. Many farms are nearby. In recent days, law enforcement officials across the border and in nearby counties have expressed concern about the number of immigrants arriving in Texas, which has long been one of the heaviest immigrant trafficking borders. Federal officials have recorded a record number of illegal crossings across the southern border for the year, with more than 44,000 recorded last month in the area around Del Rio and the Eagle Pass, the border town closer to San Antonio. Smugglers often transport large numbers of immigrants in trailers, trucks, or SUVs after meeting them in remote areas as soon as they enter the United States. One of the deadliest cases of smuggling occurred in 2003, when sheriff’s deputies discovered the bodies of 17 immigrants, including a 7-year-old boy, in an overheated trailer in Victoria, a city in southern Texas. When officials located the trailer at a truck stop, they found that migrants trapped inside had tried to dig air holes so they could breathe. Another migrant later died at a hospital. In 2017, 10 men died in San Antonio after riding in a tractor full of 200 migrants who had no food, water or fresh air for hours. Nearly another 30 people were hospitalized and the driver was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the smuggling operation. Accidents near the border are also common, sometimes during prosecutions by law enforcement. In 2012, a Ford pickup truck full of more than 20 undocumented immigrants hit two trees in South Texas, killing 15 people. In March 2021, 13 people were killed in a remote area of ​​Southern California when a cramped Ford mission led to the path of a tractor-trailer. And last August, at least 10 people were killed and 20 others injured when a truck crashed in South Texas. A memorial to the site where 13 immigrants were killed when an SUV and a tractor collided near Holtville, California, in 2021. Credit … Ariana Drehsler for the New York Times In May, agents arrested more than 239,000 migrants across the border, an all-time high, including people who had already attempted to enter in the past. The United States is pursuing a public health emergency policy known as Title 42, which has resulted in approximately half of all migrants returning to Mexico or being repatriated to their countries of origin. However, an increasing number of immigrants from India, Russia, Senegal and elsewhere cannot be removed quickly because their countries will not accept them and they are allowed to enter the United States. At the border, they are deported and receive notifications to appear in court or denounce immigration authorities within the country. “This horrific tragedy is a reminder that we need a safe, orderly way for people to seek asylum,” said San Antonio Democrat Joaquin Castro. “The continued use of Title 42 has made desperate people even more desperate.” The policy has also encouraged migrants to make repeated attempts to cross the border if they do not succeed in their first attempt, say immigration analysts, a factor in escalating the number of crossings last year. In addition to the unmarried adults who usually make such crossings, thousands of families and children arrive daily from Central America, driven by the violence, natural disasters, and aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic.
There has also been an increase in the number of unmarried adults from Mexico and Central America seeking entry into the United States, often following insidious routes to avoid detection by authorities. It was not clear where the people found on Monday came from. Miriam Jordan and Eliza Fawcett contributed to the report.