Forty-six people were found dead and abandoned in a tractor-trailer on a remote back road in San Antonio in the latest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico to the U.S. Sixteen people were hospitalized, including four children, the Associated Press reports. A city worker heard a cry for help from the truck shortly before 6 p.m. Monday and discovered the gruesome scene, Police Chief William McManus said. Hours later, body bags lay spread on the ground near the trailer and bodies remained inside as authorities responded. It’s among the deadliest of the tragedies that have claimed thousands of lives in recent decades as people attempt to cross the border from Mexico. The home countries of the immigrants and how long they were abandoned on the side of the road were not immediately known. Three people were taken into custody, but it was unclear if they were connected with human trafficking, McManus said.
Of the 16 taken to hospitals with heat-related illnesses, 12 were adults and four were children, said Fire Chief Charles Hood. The patients were hot to the touch and dehydrated, and no water was found in the trailer, he said. Those in the trailer were part of a presumed migrant smuggling attempt. The investigation was led by U.S. Homeland Security Investigations. Some advocates drew a link to the Biden administration’s border policies. Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, who had been dreading such a tragedy for months said, “With the border shut as tightly as it is today for migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, people have been pushed into more and more dangerous routes. Truck smuggling is a way up." Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican running for reelection, was blunt in a tweet about the Democratic president: “These deaths are on Biden. They are a result of his deadly open border policies.”