Investigators at the scene where dozens of migrants were discovered dead on Monday, June 27, 2022, inside or near a tractor-trailer in San Antonio, Texas. The death toll rose to 51 on Wednesday. (Lisa Krantz/The New York Times)
Delilah Hernandez, left, and her mother, Marissa, laid flowers on June 28, 2022, at the spot where 53 migrants died from the heat in a caravan on Monday.
Crosses left by South San Antonio residents Debra Ponce and Angelita Olvera stand at the site where a suffocating semi-trailer filled with migrants met on the southwest side.
Debra Ponce, left, and Angelita Olvera pray after installing two crossings on June 28, 2022, a day after dozens of migrants died in a suffocating semi-trailer that defected on the southwest side.
The young couple wrote enthusiastic comments on social media.
“There is no smile or eyes other than yours,” Alejandro Miguel Andino Caballero, 22, wrote in Spanish to his wife, Margie Tamara Paz Grajera, 20, on Facebook on May 23.
About a week and a half later, they left their home in Honduras for the United States, along with Caballero’s brother, Fernando Jose Redondo Caballero, 18.
The trio were likely among the 53 immigrants who died in one of the deadliest human trafficking incidents in the country. On Monday night he took up position on an abandoned road on the southwest side. The immigrants, who were crammed into a semi-trailer that had suffocating in the warmth of South Texas, came here from Mexico and all of Central America.
On Wednesday, Honduras’ Foreign Ministry said it may not yet identify with certainty the three members of the family circle. The ministry is working with Bexar County officials to verify their identities.
Among the dead were also two sisters who dreamed of a better life, Carla and Griselda Carac-Tambriz, from Guatemala, and Adela Betulia Ramirez Quezada, 28, from Honduras. Quezada’s mother and sister in Los Angeles, according to a Honduran newspaper.
On Wednesday, county officials continued the hard work of identifying the victims, adding 40 men and thirteen women. So far, they had potentially met 37.
Some of the migrants crammed into the trailer of the red Volvo van were carrying false official documents, slowing authorities’ efforts to find out their names, ages and origins.
Working with the consulates of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador adds an extra layer of headaches for officials.
The sheer number of patients is putting pressure on the Bexar County medical examiner’s office, prompting its staff to turn to its other numbers in Travis and Dallas counties for help with autopsies. They expect to complete the sinister tables in the coming days.
As county officials tended to the dead, survivors of the human trafficking crisis continued to receive care at local hospitals wednesday. Initially, another 16 people were transported to hospitals in the region: 12 adults and 4 pediatric patients. Five have died since then.
At the university hospital, a 23-year-old woman remained in regular condition and a teenager in critical condition on Wednesday.
One type in critical condition, and another type and a woguy were in serious condition at the center’s Metropolitan Methodist Hospital.
One patient at Texas Vista, formerly Southwest General Hospital, remained in good condition.
Two survivors were still being treated at CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Hospital in Westover Hills, as well as a patient at San Antonio Children’s Hospital. His age and physical condition were unknown.
The center’s Baptist Medical Center won two patients, who were fit Tuesday night.
On Monday, temperatures in San Antonio hovered around one hundred degrees. The rear of the platform was refrigerated, but no air conditioning unit was visible when the emergency worker corps entered. Many survivors suffered heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Authorities said there did not appear to be drinking water in the trailer.
The federal government subsequently arrested four other people in connection with the deaths, adding the alleged driver, Homero Zamorano, 45.
He was arrested after the government said he abandoned the semi-trailer and fled under the influence of methamphetamine. Zamorano, who grew up in Brownsville and lives in Palestine, faces federal human trafficking charges.
The 4 suspects in federal custody.
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller had visited 11 survivors in six hospitals in the first two days after the incident. He said the maximum gave the impression of being young, between 16 and 20 years old.
Garcia-Siller prayed for those who could not respond. Some were unable to speak because they were intubated. However, he spoke to them, advising them to accept as truth with the other people who sought to help them: medical personnel, police and security personnel.
The archbishop said he had a verbal exchange “consistent” with an intubated woman communicating with her eyes and hands.
Another survivor was well enough to communicate with him, though they have refrained from discussing situations on the crowded semi-trailer, Garcia-Siller said.
Garcia-Siller visited 11 other people but knew only one call: Serenity, a 16-year-old woman who was in better condition than most other survivors.
“I’ve never heard of anyone with that call,” Garcia-Siller said. His call translates to “serenity” in English. ” Beautiful call, beautiful call. It was a very beautiful moment. I asked her to repeat (her call) and she smiled. She’s fine.
The archbishop will preside over a special Mass in memory of the deceased, survivors and their families at 7 a. m. tonight in the Cathedral of San Fernando for all those “interested in running with migrants”.
Several local humanitarian and legal assistance teams worked Wednesday with survivors and their families, as well as the families of the dead. Many family members have struggled to get updates on loved ones hospitalized in San Antonio or missing.
Felicitos Garcia, owner of a grocery store in the remote network of San Miguel Huautla, in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, said the mother of Jose Luis Vasquez Guzman, who is hospitalized in Texas, traveled to the state capital to learn more about her son’s situation. . the status and location of your cousin.
“Life is hard here,” he said García. La people by developing their own crops such as corn, beans and wheat. Sometimes the land provides the way, and rarely not when the rains come late. There is nothing in position for other people to have other resources. People live day by day.
Natalia Trotter, managing attorney for RAICES, said the San Antonio immigrant rights organization was one of the first to arrive monday on Quintana Road near Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. But the next day, the organization did not have access to any of the migrants who had been transferred to hospitals in the area.
“What’s unfortunate is that we haven’t been to provide representation on the scene and we haven’t been to meet the migrants yet,” said Trotter, founded in Corpus Christi. “But as soon as we touch them, as soon as they are out of a critical state, we are in a position to step in and provide any kind of legal representation. “
For now, RAICES is tracking patients’ progress.
Trotter said the organization seeks to ensure that certain survivors have due process under U. S. law. Immigrants have strong arguments for staying in the United States, he said, despite the option immigration officials will evaluate to expedite their deportation.
In 2020, government officials enacted Title 42, an emergency public fitness ordinance that the federal government can deny to migrants seeking asylum in the event of a pandemic. Trotter said he feared the survivors would be deported under the order.
“We’ve taken a close look at the Department of Homeland Security, so it still makes us nervous because we don’t need anyone to be deported without getting data or representation,” Trotter said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Instead of preventing the program immediately, they let it fade over the course of a year. Now, a surge of applicants has rushed to ask for billions more in last-minute tax breaks.