AUSTIN, Texas — Mexican and Guatemalan politicians echoed Republican lawmakers in the United States who blamed the Biden administration’s failure to address the migration crisis at the southern border for the mass casualty event involving migrants this week.
The bodies of dozens of migrants were found in the back of an 18-wheeler truck that had been parked on the side of a dirt road just miles from downtown San Antonio Monday evening. As of Tuesday afternoon, 51 people have been declared deceased, rising overnight from 46 after several people who had been taken to the hospital succumbed to their injuries. All suffered from heat-related complications, being confined to the back of a suffocating container lacking air conditioning when the temperature outside hit triple digits Monday.
Investigators within the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations have called the event a human smuggling incident, but questions remain as to whether the migrants illegally crossed the southern border from Mexico and then were transported further into the country or if they were smuggled through the ports of entry but not caught.
As investigators piece together what happened, lawmakers and politicians on both sides of the aisle are pointing fingers, largely at the Biden administration. And so are certain foreign leaders.
DOZENS OF BODIES FOUND IN TRUCK CARRYING MIGRANTS TO SAN ANTONIO
Mexican and Guatemalan leaders spoke out Tuesday, coming to the defense of Republicans and blaming the Biden administration for the tragedy. Of the 51 deceased, 22 have been identified as Mexican citizens. Seven Guatemalans and two Hondurans were also among the victims. Thirty-nine men and 12 women were among the deceased, local officials told media during a briefing Tuesday afternoon.
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador told media during a press conference Tuesday that the tragedy is the most deadly migrant smuggling event between both countries. He blamed “a lack of control” at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It happens because there is trafficking of people and a lack of control, in this case at the Mexican-U.S. border, but also in the U.S. interior,” Lopez Obrador said.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei visited with U.S. officials in Washington just hours before the incident was reported. He told DHS officials that poverty and the effects of climate change were pushing people to the U.S. and called for the construction of metaphorical “walls of prosperity,” a reference to the physical barriers that former President Donald Trump erected at its southern border.
“The vice president sent a clear message yesterday of ‘Do not come because we will not let you in.’ That’s a clear message — but if you have a lukewarm message, it only creates the opportunity to misinterpret,” Giammettei told Fox News in reference to how Biden said as a candidate that he would reunite migrant families separated at the border under the Trump administration.
“Well, humanitarian messages were used here by the coyotes in a distorted manner because what they said over there was that they will promote family reunification,” Giammattei said.
President Joe Biden issued a statement around noon Tuesday, calling the incident a “tragic loss of life” that was both “horrifying and heartbreaking.”
“Initial reports are that this tragedy was caused by smugglers or human traffickers who have no regard for the lives they endanger and exploit to make a profit,” Biden said. “This incident underscores the need to go after the multibillion-dollar criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths.”
But Republicans, as well as the government of Mexico and the U.S. Border Patrol’s union, hounded Biden for how they say his policies and posture at the border led to this mass casualty event.
“This horrific tragedy of dozens left to die in a tractor-trailer could have been prevented if President Biden would do his job and secure the border,” Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) said in a statement emailed to the Washington Examiner Tuesday afternoon, after initially blaming Biden Monday evening. “The federal government is complicit in Mexican cartels’ human smuggling enterprise, encouraging migrants to risk their lives by not enforcing our nation’s laws and allowing historic levels of illegal crossings.”
Biden accused Abbott of “political grandstanding around tragedy” for his remarks Monday, and he compared Abbott’s “shameful” behavior as comparable to the cartels’ shameful actions of “exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit.”
Biden’s press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre, accused Abbott and other Republicans of playing politics when it was not appropriate, adding that “the fact of the matter is the border is closed.”
National Border Patrol Council, which represents Border Patrol agents, criticized the White House over its claim that the southern border was “closed.”
“While the WH press secretary and others in the Admin ridiculously keep saying ‘the border is closed,’ someone should ask them how we end up with 46 dead people who were smuggled 250 miles from the border to San Antonio. How did they get there through a ‘closed’ border?” the Border Patrol union wrote in a post on Twitter.
While the WH press secretary and others in the Admin ridiculously keep saying “the border is closed”, someone should ask them how we end up with 46 dead people who were smuggled 250 miles from the border to San Antonio.
How did they get there through a “closed” border?
— Border Patrol Union – NBPC (@BPUnion) June 28, 2022
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayoraks issued a statement late Monday that he was “heartbroken” and “praying” for the survivors. The Border Patrol union called on Mayorkas to resign.
The number of migrants encountered attempting to enter the U.S. illegally from Mexico rose in May, surpassing all previous records over the past century, an indication of the scale of the illegal immigration crisis at the border.
U.S. border officials intercepted 239,416 migrants attempting to enter the country illegally last month, the fourth consecutive monthly rise.
In the first 16 full months of Biden’s term in office, federal law enforcement officials at the southern border have stopped noncitizens attempting to cross into the U.S. without permission 2.975 million times, including migrants who were denied admission at ports of entry.
Meanwhile, Mexican cartels are openly bragging on TikTok about how they make millions of dollars from a migrant border smuggling operation across the Texas border while evading law enforcement, according to three videos obtained by the Washington Examiner.
The Texas Department of Public Safety, which shared the promotional videos, is continuing to battle the social media recruitment of young American drivers to bring noncitizens illegally into the U.S.
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San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who was on the scene Monday evening, tried to steer clear of the blame game.
“The plight of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis, but tonight, we are dealing with a horrific human tragedy, so I would urge you all to think compassionately,” Nirenberg said.
