Source: CCTV news client
U.S. law enforcement officers found a large number of migrant bodies in an abandoned truck in San Antonio, Texas, on June 27, local time. According to the latest news, as of the 29th local time, the death toll has risen to 53, which is one of the most serious immigration deaths in the United States in recent years.
Francisco Gadouño, director of Mexico's National Migration Agency, said at least 27 of the dead had been confirmed to be from Mexico, 7 from Guatemala, 4 from Honduras and 2 from El Salvador.
At present, the US police have arrested 3 people, and some US media reported that one of the suspects of these three people is the driver of the truck. According to law enforcement officials, the driver involved took a lot of methamphetamine when he was arrested and had to be taken to the hospital, and he is expected to appear in federal court on the 29th on charges of smuggling. The two Mexican suspects involved have been indicted in U.S. federal court.
In the aftermath of the accident, many places in Texas held mourning events for the victims, who said the tragedy should not have happened.
Jessica Assoya, American Community Event Organizer: When I was fourteen, I came here in a truck. I also fainted from the heat at that time, and I was lucky that I woke up later. It's really tough, I'm too tired, I've had enough, things shouldn't be like this.
Agent agents in charge of the Homeland Security investigation in San Antonio said the trafficking was "the worst one seen in the United States." These groups are becoming increasingly violent, treating migrants "as commodities."
CNN reported on the 29th that these immigrants come to the United States at increasing risk, and immigrant rights advocates have criticized that these deaths are the latest examples of the increasing tragic trend, due to various border policies in the United States, immigrants are forced to take an increasingly dangerous way to the United States. Last year, the death toll of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border reached its highest number since data were recorded in 2014, with at least 650 people dying while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.
CCTV reporter Liu Xiaoqian: According to the United Nations International Organization for Migration, at least 290 people have died across the US-Mexico border in the first six months of 2022. Local immigration authorities in the United States say the federal government's border policy has directly led immigrants to take dangerous ways to the United States, and if it continues, similar tragedies will continue.