Migrant deaths must shake our nation’s conscience

The word “crisis” gets bandied about often for political gain, but if there is a situation that meets that bar, this is it.

By

Editorials

July 1, 2022 - 3:05 PM

In this aerial view, members of law enforcement investigate a tractor trailer on June 27, 2022, in San Antonio, Texas. According to reports, at least 46 people, who are believed migrant workers from Mexico, were found dead in an abandoned tractor trailer. Over a dozen victims were found alive, suffering from heat stroke and taken to local hospitals. (Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images/TNS)

We cannot comprehend the agony that engulfed more than 50 migrants trapped and left to die in an overheated tractor-trailer in Texas. Every detail that emerges in news reports only compounds the horror.

There was no trace that migrants had been given water, and some of them were reportedly sprinkled with steak seasoning to mask their smell as smugglers transported them. Authorities said many migrants jumped to their deaths in an attempt to escape the sweltering trailer.

The word “crisis” gets bandied about often for political gain, but if there is a situation that meets that bar, this is it. We’re looking at a mass murder, with patterns that suggest the work of an international smuggling or trafficking operation that abandoned its cargo of Mexican and Central American citizens, including children, on an industrial road in San Antonio.

Related
December 10, 2021
September 22, 2021
July 9, 2019
May 23, 2019