Texas migrant deaths: Families anxious amid efforts to ID victims | Migration News

The bodies of more than a dozen Hondurans were identified among the 53 dead after being discovered trapped inside a truck in south TexasAs families desperately seek news of their loved ones amid ongoing efforts to identify victims, a senior Mexican official said. Francisco Garduno, head of the Mexican government’s Institute of National Migration (INM), on Wednesday said 14 Hondurans, seven Guatemalans and two Salvadorans had died, with 27 deaths in Mexico reported one day. days earlier. Very few victims’ names have been released so far, more than a day after authorities on Monday afternoon found the truck. Dozens of people have been abandoned in the sweltering summer heat in suburban San Antonio, Texas. The discovery marks one of the deadliest human trafficking cases on the US-Mexico border in recent years. The death toll rose to 53 on Wednesday after two more people died, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office. Forty of the victims were male and 13 were female. Officials were able to identify 37 victims as of Wednesday morning, pending verification with authorities in other countries. “It’s been a tedious, tedious, sad and difficult process,” said Bexar County Commissioner Rebeca Clay-Flores.

The discovery of the truck has prompted grief and anger across the United States, as migration advocates blame the country’s restrictive immigration policies for prompting asylum seekers to seek asylum. sword. dangerous people smugglers to get them across the Mexican border. “At least 50 lives have been lost because of an immigration system that dehumanizes and criminalizes asylum seekers within our borders,” Center for Refugee and Immigration Legal Services and Education (RAICES), a group based in Texas, said in a statement on Tuesday. “As we grieve, our hearts also go out to the families and loved ones of the victims and survivors who have yet to be named.” Al Jazeera’s Manuel Rapalo, reporting Wednesday morning from the San Antonio area where the truck was discovered, said a small, makeshift memorial has been set up at the site. “The community here is really confused by what has happened,” he said, pointing out that it comes just weeks after 19 children and two teachers were killed in the accident. a mass shooting at an elementary school in nearby Uvalde, Texas. “Many people we spoke to saw this as just one senseless tragedy after another. Others we have met say this is a completely avoidable tragedy. Disappointment is growing, criticize US policies is on the rise,” Rapalo DO IT GOOD said. “Migrant rights activists say policies in place has abolished traditional asylum processes in the US…and without a change to these border policies, many here worry that it is only a matter of time before a senseless tragedy else will happen again. “