50 Migrants Die After Trailer Abandoned In San Antonio Heat

By AP
Posted on 06/28/22 | News Source: Associated Press

Fifty people died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning in the sweltering Texas heat, one of the worst tragedies to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico. More than a dozen people — their bodies hot to the touch — were taken to hospitals, including four children.

A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck parked on a lonely San Antonio back road late Monday afternoon and discovered the gruesome scene inside the trailer, Police Chief William McManus said. Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground.

Forty-six people were found dead at the scene, authorities said. Four more later died after being taken to hospitals, said Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff, the county’s top elected official,

Among the dead were 39 males and 11 females, he said.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said those who died “were likely trying to find a better life.”

“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg said.

Attempts to cross the U.S. border from Mexico have claimed thousands of lives in in both countries in recent decades.

President Joe Biden called the latest deaths “horrifying and heartbreaking.” He said initial reports were that smugglers or human traffickers were to blame.