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According to Reuters, 51 migrants were discovered dead outside San Antonio on June 27th. After an unlawful human smuggling operation went wrong, 39 males and 12 women were trapped inside a tractor-trailer truck with no access to water or air conditioning. Temperatures in the truck reached as high as 103 degrees Fahrenheit, causing the passengers' deaths.
After local authorities identified them as the owners of the tractor-trailer truck, two suspects—both Mexican nationals—were arrested and charged in a U.S. federal court.
Juan Francisco D'Luna-Bilbao and Juan Claudio D'Luna-Mendez are facing charges of having firearms while living in the United States illegally. Another suspect, the truck driver, who is a lawful resident of the United States, has also been arrested and will most likely be charged by federal authorities.
Craig Larrabee, acting special agent in charge of the investigative arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said that the incident represents the greatest loss of human life in a human trafficking incident in the US ever.
Local police reported finding “stacks of bodies” inside the tractor-trailer and located more bodies around the area. In their report, they said that some of the victims' bodies were "hot to the touch".
In response to the tragedy, Rep. Sheila Lee posted on Twitter, saying, "For God’s sake! These are human beings! These are human beings! My deepest sympathy to the families of the deceased migrants. This is one of the most horrific examples of the murder of innocent persons who simply wanted an opportunity for themselves and their families. The loss of 51 migrants and others in the hospital is unspeakable! We got to find a way to stop this kind of criminal behavior."
In a recent interview with The Austin Journal, Texas Public Policy Foundation Policy Scholar Selene Rodriguez talked about the effect of human trafficking. She said, “Human smuggling is the precursor of human trafficking. People who conspire with human smugglers to illegally enter the United States typically incur in thousands of dollars of debt to make the trip. After entering the country illegally, these same people are often forced to pay off that debt through forced labor and sexual exploitation, which is the essence of the modern-day slavery that is human trafficking.”
According to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, over 70% of Hispanic Texans believe that there is a “crisis” on the Texas-Mexico border. Additionally, over 50% want the local and federal governments to do more to tackle issues at the border. Moreover, 60% of Hispanic Texans believe that employing more enforcement officers at the border is a good idea and will help the problem.
Republicans and Democrats alike are criticizing President Joe Biden's handling of the problem at the border.
Since President Biden's inauguration, the Border Patrol has logged nearly 1,684,116 land border encounters on the United States' southern border, which is a more than 200% increase from all of last year.
According to Fox News, Mexican drug cartels earn as much as $14 million a day smuggling people into the United States.
Retired Tucson Border Patrol Chief Roy Villareal recently said, "A lot of these vulnerable populations use their life savings. Some are essentially indentured servants and they're working off this debt for a long period of time. In other cases, some of these migrants are asked to transport narcotics or some form of crime to work off a different part of their debt."
Minors and youths are not exempt from this problem. According to a 2016 study from the University of Texas at Austin, there are more than 78,000 minor and youth Human Trafficking victims in Texas at any one moment, along with around 230,000 labor trafficking victims.