People gather near the scene of the death of an immigrant in San Antonio, Texas, on June 27. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
On the evening of June 27, local time, a refrigerated container truck was found near San Antonio, Texas, usa, and the car was stuffed with illegal stowaways from Latin America, and the number of victims has risen to 51 so far. It was the deadliest death toll ever recorded in the United States.
The repeated "human tragedy"
Local police said that at about 17:50 on June 27, a local municipal worker found an 18-wheel 40-foot refrigerated container semi-trailer with a red front end, near a sparsely populated trail near the railway and State Highway 35 in the southern suburbs of San Antonio, with a faint cry for help, the door locked, and the cab open but empty.
At the time of the incident, the local temperature was as high as 38 degrees Celsius, and a firefighter in San Antonio said that "there was neither water nor air conditioning equipment working in the containers filled with people."
It is reported that all of the victims are adults, of whom 22 are Mexican, 7 are Guatemalan and 2 are Honduran, and the nationalities of the remaining victims are to be confirmed.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it had arrested 3 people suspected of organizing smuggling and being responsible for the accident, and the container truck could have been abandoned on the side of the road due to mechanical failure. But nearby residents said the area was a traditional "drop-off point" for "card stowaways," where they had previously bumped into stowaways with luggage and some reached out to beg them.
This is the third similar incident in Texas since the 21st century. Previously, on May 14, 2003, 19 Latin American stowaways died in a jika bound for Houston on the southern border; On July 23, 2017, 10 stowaways were smothered in a set card in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio.
More and more illegal immigrants are choosing "drill trucks"
Historically part of Mexico, Texas has a long and loose common border with Mexico after its annexation by the United States, and has been an important passageway for illegal immigrants smuggled into the United States.
Before the 911 incident in 2001, the most classic way to smuggle was to find no-one loopholes everywhere on the U.S.-Mexico border, or to bribe local border people such as ranches to help "guide the mystery." At this stage, the biggest threat to the lives of illegal immigrants is to fall off cliffs, fall into the water, or be killed and injured by law enforcement officers who intercept or pursue them during smuggling.
After the "911" incident, the United States comprehensively strengthened border control, Latin American stowaways were forced to "get into the car", and an organized human snake group came into being, they arranged for smugglers to board a collection truck in Mexico, mixed with border inspections and then let them get off the car to "ask for more blessings".
As border checks become more stringent and truck smuggling itineraries become more and more secretive, stowaway pick-up locations move south to mexican inland cities far from the border, and the drop-off location is also far from the U.S.-Mexico border, and even inward to downtown San Antonio and Houston.
This more secretive and longer carriage "journey" does greatly reduce the detection rate of stowaways, but it also inevitably makes stowaways stay in closed carriages for longer, which also increases their personal risk factor.
According to insiders, State Highway 35 from Laredo to San Antonio has become the legendary "golden passage for smuggling" because of its short journey and few "cards", and San Antonio is like a "gold distribution center" for Latin American stowaways.
Police blocked the scene of the death of an immigrant in San Antonio, Texas, on June 28. Photo: Xinhua News Agency
Tragedy has become "fodder" for partisan strife
The occurrence of this "immigrant truck" tragedy, which seems to be an accident, is actually closely related to immigration policy, and the immigration issue has repeatedly become a bipartisan game chip.
The Trump administration, which came to power in early 2017, with the support of Republicans, tried to use means such as "border walls" to prevent illegal immigrants from Latin America from entering the country, and repeatedly used arrest and deportation methods to drive out illegal immigrants from Latin America who have entered the country. In March 2020, the Trump administration banned Latin American stowaways from submitting asylum applications in the United States on the grounds of "epidemic prevention", thereby stimulating more Latin American stowaways to "drill the car".
Before the 2020 election, Biden and the Democratic Party had lashed out at the Trump administration's illegal immigration policy, and Biden had vaguely stated at the beginning of his election that he would "always open the door to immigrants", but then he hurriedly repented in front of the crowded Latin American stowaways, and accepted all of Trump's "epidemic prevention rules" as ordered.
For partisan reasons, section 42 and the Immigration Protection Agreement (MPP) related to asylum applications for stowaways only allow the deportation of Latin American stowaways, but are not punished by law as in the Trump era. As a result, many stowaways repeated the process of "smuggling - being caught and expelled".
According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in May 2022 alone, the number of Latin American smugglers detained on the U.S. side of the U.S.-Mexico border reached a record 239416, a sharp increase of 180597 over the same period last year, many of whom were "two into the palace," "three into the palace, or even "four into the palace."
In recent years, almost any major sudden event in the United States will become "material" for party struggle and ethnic division. The death of an illegal immigrant is no exception.
Biden, who is on a visit to Spain, blames "human traffickers who recklessly risk their lives for illegal profiteering" and flaunts the "effective means of cracking down on illegal immigration" adopted under his leadership.
Republican Governor Abbott of Texas directly attacked the border policy adopted by Democratic President Joe Biden, saying that "these [immigrants] deaths were caused by Biden."
In a few months, the midterm elections will be held, and several key states, including Texas, will also hold gubernatorial elections. At this moment, the two parties will naturally play the "throwing pot stunt" to the fullest.
As some analysts have pointed out, almost every bill and law enforcement involving the southern border and illegal immigration is the result of bipartisan "layers of accumulation", such as the "Section 42" and "Immigration Protection Agreement" that directly led to the sharp increase in the "drilling rate" of illegal immigrants in Latin America, which were introduced by the Trump administration but were copied unchanged by the Biden administration.
Tragedy has already happened. I cannot help but ask, in addition to lashing out at the "responsibility of the opponent," can the two parties in the United States come up with a "prescription" to solve the problem and avoid a recurrence of the tragedy?
Written by/Tao Shorthouse (Columnist)
Editor/Xu Qiuying
Proofreading/Liu Jun