Eric Gay and Elliot Spagat, The Associated Press Posted Monday, 27 June 2022 21:55 EDT Last Updated on Monday, 27 June 2022 22:39 EDT
SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Forty-six people were found dead and 16 more were taken to hospitals after a towed tractor platform containing suspected migrants was found on a remote highway southwest of San Antonio on Monday. officials said.
A city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation with a cry for help shortly before 6 a.m. Monday, Police Chief William McManus said. Officers arrived to find a body on the ground outside the trailer and a trailer door partially open, he said.
Of the 16 transferred to hospitals with heat-related illnesses, 12 were adults and four children, fire chief Charles Hood said. Patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer, he said.
Three people were arrested, but it was unclear if they were absolutely related to human trafficking, McManus said.
Those in the trailer were part of an alleged attempted trafficking of migrants to the United States, and the investigation was led by U.S. National Security Investigations, McManus said.
Those in the trailer were on an alleged attempt to traffic migrants in South Texas, according to an official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the information had not been authorized for publication.
It may be the deadliest tragedy among thousands of people who have died trying to cross the U.S. border from Mexico in recent decades. Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked in a San Antonio Walmart. In 2003, 19 migrants were found in a suffocating truck in southeastern San Antonio.
Large platforms emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid an increase in U.S. border enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for to illegal steps.
Before that, people paid small fees to mom and pop operators to get them to cross a largely unguarded border. As the crossing became exponentially more difficult after the 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., migrants were driven through more dangerous terrain and paid thousands more dollars.
Heat poses a serious danger, especially when temperatures can rise sharply inside vehicles. The weather in the Sant Antoni area was mostly cloudy on Monday, but temperatures approached 100 degrees.
Spagat reported from San Diego, California.