On May 14, Victoria County sheriffs found an abandoned tractor-trailer off U.S. Highway 77 containing the bodies of 18 people. Among them was a five-year-old boy. Most of the dead appeared to be in their 20s or 30s. The 19th person died three days later in the hospital.

According to the medical examiner who performed the autopsies, the deaths were caused by hypothermia, dehydration, and suffocation from the hours-long trip from the Rio Grande Valley and after the trailer was abandoned 120 miles southwest of Houston. Many had wounds on their hands from attempting to claw their way out of the trailer. Immigration cops arrested more than 40 immigrants from the trailer and are holding them in an immigration jail in Houston. They are looking for another 30-50 people who they claim escaped the trailer when the doors were opened.

Survivors have told of their desperate attempts to call for help and escape the trailer during the trip from Harlingen, near the Mexico border. The Houston Chronicle reported that a 911 dispatcher in Kingsville, Texas, received a call from a cell phone from one of those trapped inside during the night. The dispatcher didn’t speak Spanish and the call was not translated until the next morning. Another call shortly after that, from a truck driver calling attention to a bandanna waving from the rear of a trailer, was likewise treated as a hoax.

The truck was carrying working people and their families from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Many were from the Mexican states of San Luis Potosí and Guanajuato. They reportedly paid $1,000 to coyotes (smugglers) to take the trip from the Rio Grande Valley to Houston. Police block all roads in Texas coming out of the Rio Grande Valley, about 100 miles north of the border with Mexico, while la migra controls the border crossings, encouraging elaborate smuggling measures. The driver of the truck, Tyrone Williams, who is an immigrant from Jamaica, was paid $5,000 to haul the load. He is currently being held without bond.

Francisca Barios, cousin of two of the dead and one of the survivors, participated in a press conference and vigil in Houston May 16. She said she hopes that the men’s children will be able to come to Houston.

Henry Cooper, spokesperson for Latinos por la Paz (Latinos for Peace), called for an end to the “government’s murderous immigration policies” that are responsible for forcing workers to try to get to their jobs in this fashion. He encouraged all those opposed to these measures to join a “Walk for Dignity and Respect for Immigrants” sponsored by the immigrant rights group CRECEN.

The protest, which calls for permanent residency for all immigrants, will take place Sunday, May 25, in Houston at 2 p.m. beginning at 6601 Hillcroft. Cooper, an organizer for the march, said that the theme of the action, “No Human Being is Illegal,” is all the more important now.

Tony Dutrow contributed to this article.
 
 
Related article:
Murderous immigration policy  
 
 
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