On June 27, local time, police in San Antonio, Texas, found a large number of migrant bodies on a container truck. As of June 28, local time, the death toll of the migrant deaths had risen to 51.
This horrific tragedy is not unique.
Nandu, N video reporter learned that for many years, hordes of migrants crowded in container trucks across the U.S.-Mexico border, enduring heat, thirst, hunger and lack of oxygen, trying to come to the United States to start a new life. Yet, as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott puts it, many immigrants end up with a "deadly trip." Even if they succeed in arriving in the United States, many immigrants will not reach "paradise", but will become a tool for officials at all levels of the United States to pursue economic and political interests.
People gather near the scene of the death of an immigrant in San Antonio, Texas, on June 27. Xinhua News Agency
Tragic: 51 people have died in the Texas truck case
Police in San Antonio, Texas, found a large number of migrant bodies on a container truck. The San Antonio Fire Department said the truck involved was devoid of water and air conditioning, causing a large number of migrants to die of heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Rescuers also found 16 survivors, including 4 children, in the car. Two of the survivors died in hospital due to ineffective rescue. San Antonio police said the incident has now been handed over to U.S. federal agents for investigation, and three people involved have been arrested.
Tom Payne, a spokesman for Beksal County, where the city of San Antonio is located, said at a press conference on the 28th local time that 39 of the 51 dead were men and 12 women. The screening of the identity of the deceased is still ongoing, and Payne said there may be minors among the deceased.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Eblad said on the 28th that the dead included 22 Mexicans, 7 Guatemalans and 2 Hondurans, and the nationality of the remaining dead has not been confirmed. Ebrad said Mexico will also join the U.S. investigation into the migrant's death.
San Antonio, where the accident occurred, is about 150 kilometers from the U.S.-Mexico border and is an important transit route point for illegal immigrants entering the United States. The city has hot summer weather, with temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius in recent days.
Hardship: Pay tens of thousands of dollars to smuggle but save your life
In fact, this Texas truck immigration massacre is not unique.
In July 2017, 39 migrants were found trapped on a truck near a Walmart supermarket in San Antonio, 10 of whom ended up dying. In May 2003, 140 immigrants tried to enter the United States by truck in southern Texas, and 18 people eventually died. On the U.S.-Mexico border, migrants die almost every year from heat and lack of oxygen. The migrants are trapped in overcrowded carriages, lacking water, air and food.
"[Migrants are injured and killed] far more than we realize." Jerry Robinnett, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement worker in San Antonio, said he was "not surprised" by the tragedy because of the use of container trucks to transport migrants.
In San Antonio, Texas, U.S., on June 28, people mourn the deaths of migrants in the van massacre. Xinhua News Agency/Midland
Robinnett noted that human trafficking organizations have established a network of illegal immigrants stretching from Central America to the northern United States, "which is an important freight corridor, but also a channel for smuggling and trafficking." "In order to come to the United States, immigrants often have to pay smugglers tens of thousands of dollars per person.
"Yet these smugglers don't care about the people they brought into the United States because these immigrants are no longer valuable to them." Roger Henriques, an associate professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said that once there is an error in the smuggling process, such as a truck driver missing the time for the handover of goods or a problem with the air conditioning of the carriage, it is a huge danger to immigrants or even death.
Rampant: The US military takes the lead in being a "snakehead"
The sheer number of immigrants feeds the huge illegal immigrant market, and it's shocking that U.S. officials and the military, who are law enforcers, have taken the initiative to take over the smuggler business.
In July 2019, the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigation Bureau issued a statement saying 18 Marines and 1 Navy sailor were arrested on suspicion of assisting in human smuggling and drug trafficking. The soldiers were mainly from Camp Pendleton in southern California, just over 100 kilometers from the U.S.-Mexico border.
The U.S. Navy said that on July 3, 2019, local time, two Marine Corps corporals drove to the mud not far from the U.S.-Mexico border. At this time, 3 illegal immigrants took the opportunity to get into the vehicle driven by the two people. This scene was encountered by members of the U.S. Border Patrol who happened to pass by, and two U.S. servicemen were arrested on the spot.
After investigation, two U.S. servicemen admitted that this was not the first time they had helped illegal immigrants smuggle. Their "job" is to drive to the U.S.-Mexico border to pick up illegal immigrants and take them to the dens of the next batch of snakeheads. In return, U.S. soldiers involved in smuggling receive $500 per head.
Francesco Rojas, a smuggler who recruited U.S. troops for human smuggling, confessed that he liked to use money to lure recruits from disadvantaged families to participate in smuggling. Rojas said that because of the good image of the US military, they are often not suspected when driving through border checkpoints, and can even "wave through the border".
According to the U.S. Navy's Criminal Investigation Bureau, the amount of smuggling crimes involved in military crimes in Camp Pendleton has reached billions of dollars. In addition to border soldiers, law enforcement agencies such as the U.S. National Guard and Border Patrol have been exposed to involvement in human smuggling. Ronald Vitillo, the former director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has said that rampant human smuggling at the U.S.-Mexico border shows that "every agency on this pipeline is broken."
Tragedy: Immigration became a tool of partisanship in the United States
After the Texas truck immigration massacre, politicians from both parties in the United States immediately started a "war of words". Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott criticized U.S. President Joe Biden's policy of opening the borders that led to the "deadly journey" of illegal immigrants.
Abbott said Biden's adoption of an open border policy has shrunk the police force at the U.S.-Mexico border, which has made human smuggling gangs more rampant in criminal activity. Abbott said he would invest more money and police forces to prevent illegal immigrants from entering the United States.
Abbott's tough stance on immigration stems from the upcoming U.S. gubernatorial election in November, and immigration policy will be an important topic of content. Abbott's main rival in this gubernatorial election, Democratic Congressman Beto O'Rourke, said the reason for the Texas truck massacre was that there were "not enough legal immigration channels." O'Rourke believes the U.S. should further expand legal immigration to reduce illegal immigration.
On June 28, local time, US President Biden issued a statement, blaming the "human smuggling network" for the cause of the Texas truck massacre. The statement argues that it was the human rights disregard of human rights by trafficking organizations that led to the tragedy. Biden said in a statement that the U.S. government will further strengthen its crackdown on human smuggling organizations. In response to Republican criticism of Biden's border policy, the White House argued that the Biden administration's border policy is mostly a continuation of the Trump administration.
On June 28, local time, the Office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations issued a statement stressing that the United States and Mexico must investigate all the links in the chain of deaths of Texas migrants and bring all those responsible for the tragedy to justice. The statement called on authorities to develop a comprehensive strategy for safe, orderly, and regular immigration along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The U.N. refugee agency also said 290 migrants had died at the U.S.-Mexico border in the first half of this year. UNHCR expressed concern about widespread human rights violations in human smuggling along the U.S.-Mexico border and called for safer programmes to replace existing migration programmes.
Producer: Nandu Instant
Written by: Nandu reporter Zhou Fei