An immigrant was found dead inside a train car in the border city of Eagle Pass on Saturday afternoon and 11 others were rescued alive, according to authorities in Maverick County, Texas, in the second such incident in 24 hours.
Rescue of migrants on a train in Eagle Pass. Eagle Pass Fire Department
On Friday, about twenty immigrants were found inside two Union Pacific train carriages near the Texas town of Knippa, about 70 miles from San Antonio and less than 100 from the border.
Two of them, Hondurans, were dead when the authorities arrived, alerted by a 911 emergency call that people were "suffocating" inside the train due to the intense heat.
The 11 immigrants rescued Saturday at Eagle Pass came from Mexico, Honduras, Ecuador and Colombia, the San Antonio Express-News reports.
The train car belonged to the Union Pacific company, came from Mexico and was headed to San Antonio.
According to the local station KENS5, the dead man was Mexican.
Two migrants found dead and others in poor condition in two train carriages
March 25, 202302:17
Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber said the man was already dead when the migrants were discovered around 3:30 p.m. in an area with heavy train traffic outside Eagle Pass.
According to the informative website Axios, the authorities also received an alert call from inside the train, as in the case of the previous day.
Three of the survivors were hospitalized with symptoms of overheating;
the other eight survivors were detained by immigration authorities, who have opened an investigation for human trafficking.
"It's getting hotter and hotter," Schmerber said, "I think we're going to see more tragedies like this."
“In the carriages it is very hot,” he added.
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.
