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In this aerial view, members of law enforcement investigate a tractor trailer on June 27, 2022 in San Antonio, Texas. Getty Images

Bodies of 46 people found in southern Texas lorry trailer

Three people have been arrested.

LAST UPDATE | 28 Jun 2022

THREE PEOPLE WERE in custody after 46 bodies were found in a lorry trailer containing suspected migrants on the outskirts of San Antonio.

However, police chief William McManus said it was unclear if those arrested were connected with human trafficking.

Some sixteen people were taken to hospitals after the lorry was found on a remote back road near the south-west Texas city.

A city worker at the scene was alerted to the situation by a cry for help shortly before 6pm (12am Irish time ) yesterday, McManus said, adding that officers arrived to find a body on the ground and a partially opened gate to the trailer.

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, with the trailer lacking water or air-conditioning, he said.

“They were suffering from heat stroke and exhaustion,” Hood said. “It was a refrigerated tractor-trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.”

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the 46 who died had “families who were likely trying to find a better life”.

“This is nothing short of a horrific human tragedy,” Nirenberg added.

Those in the trailer were part of a presumed migrant smuggling attempt into the US and the investigation was being led by Homeland Security Investigations, McManus said.

It may be the deadliest tragedy among thousands where people have died attempting to cross the border from Mexico in recent decades.

Ten migrants died in 2017 after being trapped inside a truck that was parked at a Walmart in San Antonio. In 2003, 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck south-east of San Antonio.

Lorries emerged as a popular smuggling method in the early 1990s amid a surge in US border enforcement in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, which were then the busiest corridors for illegal crossings.

Before that, people paid small fees to operators to get them across a largely unguarded border. As crossing became exponentially more difficult after the 2001 terror attacks in the US, migrants were led through more dangerous terrain and paid thousands more.

Heat poses a serious danger, particularly when temperatures can rise severely inside vehicles.

‘A better life’

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who advocates a tough line on immigration, hit out at President Joe Biden over the disaster — blaming the Democrat’s “deadly open border policies.”

“These deaths are on Biden,” Abbott tweeted. “They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law.”

Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, called the incident a “tragedy” and said the Mexican consul was headed to the site.

Ebrard said the nationalities of the victims were not yet known, but that two Guatemalans were among the survivors.

San Antonio was the site of a similar migrant tragedy in 2017, when 10 people suffocated to death in a sweltering trailer with broken air conditioning and clogged ventilation holes as they traveled into the United States.

Dozens more had been hospitalized with heat stroke and dehydration — with the truck believed to have been holding as many as 200 people, most of whom fled when it stopped in a parking lot. The truck driver later pleaded guilty to charges related to the deaths.

After news broke of yesterday’s discovery, the archbishop of San Antonio, Gustavo Garcia-Siller tweeted “Lord have mercy on them. They hoped for a better life.”

“Once again, the lack of courage to deal with immigration reform is killing and destroying lives.”

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    Mute Olive Whyte
    Favourite Olive Whyte
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    Jun 28th 2022, 7:02 AM

    Heartbreaking and so wrong. I can’t even imagine what those people went through before they died. All dreaming of a better life. May they Rest in Peace.

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    Mute Brian Hunt
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    Jun 28th 2022, 7:12 AM

    So very sad on so many levels. May they rest in peace

    254
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    Mute Seamus Quaide
    Favourite Seamus Quaide
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    Jun 28th 2022, 7:14 AM

    Man’s inhumanity to others could not reach lower. To each of these people who suffered and died may justice be carried out in their names.

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    Mute Shane McGettrick
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    Jun 28th 2022, 8:23 AM

    Gregg Abbott already trying to lay this on Biden and his “open borders” policy. Zero humanity and lower than a snakes belly.

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    Mute Francis Devenney
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    Jun 28th 2022, 9:37 AM

    @Shane McGettrick: Totally ignoring the fact that if they had “Open borders” these poor people wouldn’t have needed to be smuggled in a truck trailer.

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    Mute A$AP Ragnick
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    Jun 28th 2022, 10:17 AM

    @Shane McGettrick: they’ll claim the 5 miles of wall at the cost of billions paid for by the taxpayer by the previous lad was an amazing deterrent.

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    Mute Margaret Mcgarry
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    Jun 28th 2022, 12:17 PM

    @Francis Devenney: it’s shocking and inhumane but they can’t have open borders no more than most countries

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    Mute Ivor McTin
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    Jun 29th 2022, 2:22 PM

    @Shane McGettrick: he’s correct. Border security are overwhelmed at the scale of trafficking across the border, largely due to Biden refusing to recognize it as an issue.

    Since Biden took office,literally millions have crossed over. Many have perished and will continue to do so unless the border is secure.

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    Mute Brian Dunne
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    Jun 28th 2022, 7:33 AM

    Life really means nothing to some people.

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    Mute Keth Warsaw
    Favourite Keth Warsaw
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    Jun 28th 2022, 8:33 AM

    Does this not display the point that people seeking this journey need to be protected from such a potentially dangerous journey? Crime gangs taking advantage of inadequate border security.

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    Mute Tommy Roche
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    Jun 28th 2022, 9:08 AM

    An insulated trailer with no AC unit, in Texas, in Summer. Basically a giant oven.

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    Mute Piggy
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    Jun 28th 2022, 10:16 AM

    How bad must your life be to want to go to America. Awful circumstances for all families

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    Mute E.J. Murray
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    Jun 28th 2022, 12:11 PM

    @Piggy: — They go in search of the much hyped American Dream, and only find out that it’s a nightmare when they get there.

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    Mute Everything Arsenal
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    Jun 28th 2022, 8:32 AM

    Coming to Netflix soon

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    Mute Great White Hope
    Favourite Great White Hope
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    Jun 28th 2022, 1:57 PM

    Mexican migrant workers died in an airplane tragedy in 1957. W Guthrie wrote Deportee- song about the tragedy. Who will champion these innocents?

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    Mute The world outside the M50
    Favourite The world outside the M50
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    Jun 28th 2022, 7:06 PM

    The radio said they were ‘just deportees’
    https://youtu.be/6JAjJB6Tt_M

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