Several dead in an accident next to a shelter for immigrants in Texas

A multiple collision next to a shelter for migrants and the homeless in the border town of Brownsville, in Texas (United States), has caused at least seven deaths and a number of injuries that is yet to be determined.

Most of the victims are Venezuelan immigrants, according to the director of the reception center.

The victims were waiting for a bus at a stop in front of the Obispo Enrique San Pedro Ozanam center at around 8:30 a.m. (3:30 p.m. Spanish peninsular time) when the vehicle ran over them.

A Brownsville Police spokesman, Lieutenant Martin Sandoval, stated that it is investigating whether the incident could be intentional and whether the driver was "intoxicated", for which reason drug and alcohol tests will be carried out.

So far, he has been detained on suspicion of reckless driving, but police consider it "more than likely" to file further charges.

Agents of his body and the Border Patrol participate in the investigation.

The director of the center, Víctor Maldonado, has declared to local media that the images from the surveillance cameras show that the vehicle, a Range Rover, jumped a traffic light about 30 meters from the bus stop, which was not marked, and "He ran over the people who were sitting there."

The car fell on its side as it came up on the sidewalk and continued to go for another seventy meters.

Other pedestrians who were about ten meters from the stop were also hit.

The shelter is the only one in Brownsville that takes in homeless people for the night, and manages the situation of thousands of migrants once they are released from the custody of federal authorities.

The center has a capacity for 250 occupants, although it is not uncommon for it to receive more in a single day.

The event occurs just four days before the measure known as Title 42 expires on Thursday, a regulation approved during the term of Donald Trump and that allows to argue public health reasons related to the covid pandemic to proceed with the rapid expulsions of migrants in an irregular situation.

The fear that the end of that measure could precipitate an increase in illegal border crossings has led the White House to approve the dispatch of 1,500 soldiers to the area to reinforce the Border Patrol.

Brownsville is a population of about 186,000 inhabitants, opposite the Mexican city of Matamoros.

95% of its population is of Hispanic origin, according to the last US census.

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