By Ken Miller -
The Associated Press
The two migrants who died on Friday trapped along with about twenty other people in a train car in South Texas were Hondurans, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported this Saturday, which is investigating the case. case as illegal smuggling across the southern border.
"We will continue to address the serious threat to public safety posed by human smuggling networks and their reckless disregard for the health and well-being of migrants," their spokeswoman Nina Pruneda said in a statement, adding that the investigation is continuing but did not specify. If there are detained migrants.
[At least two immigrants die and 10 others are rescued from a train in Texas where they were “suffocating”]
The two dead migrants were part of a group of 17 people — 15 men and two women — who were rescued from two Union Pacific rail cars near the Texas town of Knippa, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) west of San Antonio and less than 100 miles (161 kilometers) from the border.
Union Pacific said Saturday it was working with authorities to determine how the migrants got on the train, saying it was "very saddened" by the loss of life.
“Our goal is safety and we have strict policies in place to prevent unauthorized access to our trains,” said spokesperson Robynn Tysver.
After the rescue of a child at the border, authorities beg parents "not to put their children in that situation"
March 24, 202302:01
Four survivors were hospitalized, said Pruneda, who did not clarify their identities or nationalities.
Two men are in critical condition, according to the San Antonio University Health Center.
Uvalde Police Chief Daniel Rodríguez said an unidentified person called 911 around 3:50 p.m. Friday to request help for “several undocumented immigrants who were suffocating in the wagon. of a train."
Rodríguez believes that the call came from one of the carriages;
one of them was a container, and the corpses were found in it;
the other was cargo.
["I smelled the dead bodies": a doctor describes the scene of the truck where more than 50 migrants died]
It has not been specified what caused the deaths of the migrants, but the maximum temperatures in the area were around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), and these containers tend to get much hotter than ambient temperature.
Agents investigate at the site where several migrants were found on March 24, 2023. William Luther / AP
More than 50 migrants died last summer in an abandoned truck trailer on the outskirts of San Antonio.
The tragedy was the deadliest episode of human smuggling on the southern border, and authorities have vowed increased police action.
["I don't want to get shot": New video of the Uvalde massacre suggests police were afraid to confront the killer]
This Friday, on the other side of Texas, a 17-year-old boy was accused of kidnapping two migrants whose rescue at a Houston hotel ended in a shootout that left a suspect dead.
The migrants were stopped days earlier on a freeway northwest of Houston and forced into a vehicle, according to a prosecutor.
Authorities have not provided details about what happened in the days leading up to the FBI shooting rescue.
