The death toll, which the city’s fire chief had given Monday at 46, includes migrants from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, according to a federal law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The discovery came as U.S. federal authorities launched what they described as an “unprecedented” operation to disrupt human trafficking networks amid an influx of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.
“An alleged human trafficking event” was alerted by San Antonio police to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigation unit, which is leading the investigation, an ICE spokesman said Monday. The incident appears to be one of the deadliest in recent years for migrants near the southern border.
Three people detained outside the trailer site are in police custody, although their connection to the situation is unclear, police chief Bill McManus said at a news conference Monday night.
Authorities were alerted to the scene shortly before 6 p.m., when a worker at a nearby building heard a cry for help, McManus said. The worker found a trailer with the doors partially open and saw dead people inside, he said.
Forty-eight people died at the scene and two died in hospitals, the federal law enforcement official told CNN on Tuesday, noting that the toll is preliminary.
Sixteen people, 12 adults and four children, were taken alive and conscious to the medical facility, San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood told a news conference Monday night.
Patients were hot to the touch and suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion, Hood said. The refrigerator’s semi-tractor-trailer had no visible air conditioning unit and there was no water signal inside, he said. It is unclear how long people had been dead inside the truck, the official said.
High temperatures on Monday in the Sant Antoni area ranged from 90 to 100, according to the National Meteorological Service.
“None of these people were able to get out of the truck,” Hood said. “So they were still in there, waiting for help, when we arrived … that is, being too weak – a weak state – to go out and help each other.”
Among the members of the truck were at least 22 Mexicans and two Hondurans, the federal order officer said. Seven Guatemalans were among the dead and another Guatemalan was in a critical condition hospital, the country’s foreign minister told CNN.
President Joe Biden called the discovery “horrifying and heartbreaking,” and said the deaths underscored the need to prosecute criminal trafficking networks.
“Exploiting vulnerable people for profit is shameful, as is the political position around the tragedy, and my administration will continue to do everything possible to prevent traffickers and human traffickers from taking advantage of people. seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry “. said Biden.
The truck passed a checkpoint north of Laredo, Texas on Monday, said U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar, who represents a district that includes Laredo and San Antonio, which are about 150 miles away. Cuellar spoke with National Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday and has been in contact with the U.S. Border Patrol, he told CNN.
Mexico’s attorney general will investigate the deaths, the country’s foreign minister said on Twitter.
Firefighters saw “piles of bodies”
“It breaks my heart for the tragic loss of lives today and I pray for those who are still fighting for their lives,” Mayorkas said on social media. “Too many lives have been lost when individuals, including families, women and children, make this dangerous journey.”
The 60 firefighters who were at the scene are undergoing a critical incident stress report, Hood said.
“We’re not supposed to open a truck and see piles of bodies in there. None of us come to work imagining it,” the fire chief said.
One of the bodies was out of the trailer when firefighters arrived, Hood said.
Help would be given to Mexicans, the Mexican consul general in San Antonio said on social media. At least two of the 16 survivors have been identified as Guatemalans, according to Mexico’s foreign minister, citing the consul.
U.S. officials are working to better manage the flow of migrants on the U.S.-Mexico border, Mayorkas told CNN earlier this month. Its operation is based on previous initiatives to prosecute smugglers on whom migrants often depend while heading to the border. National Security also announced last spring an effort to crack down on smuggling criminal organizations, along with their federal partners.
Migrants in recent years have faced other tragedies and challenges in enduring dangerous heat and terrain as they tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
Rescues on the southern U.S. border have surpassed those of the last fiscal year. Since October, there have been more than 14,000 searches and rescues along the U.S. southern border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, including rescuing dangerous water crossings. This represents an increase of 12,833 searches and rescues in fiscal year 2021, with more than three months to go. In 2017, 10 people died and dozens were injured by heat-related conditions after being discovered on a tractor-trailer at a San Antonio Walmart. The driver of the truck was sentenced to life in prison without parole in a federal prison. In 2003, 18 victims between the ages of 7 and 91 were found dead in the back of a truck with about 100 more people, while temperatures exceeded 100 degrees, according to investigators. . The driver of that case was initially sentenced to life in prison, but in 2011 he was sentenced to almost 34 years in prison. The heat has not been the only danger for migrants crammed into vehicles. In March 2021, a truck full of 25 people collided with an SUV on an isolated stretch of California’s Imperial Valley, killing 13 undocumented immigrants.
CNN’s Carolyn Sung, Michelle Watson, Karol Suarez, Kevin Liptak, Jason Hanna, Sharif Paget, Jen Deaton, Amanda Jackson, and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.