[Text/Observer Wang Mochu]
According to the "British Broadcasting Corporation" (BBC) report on June 30, local time, a "heartbroken" Mexican American truck driver said in an interview with the BBC that American trucks Drivers sometimes cannot resist the temptation to make easy money by becoming "migrant traffickers". The driver said migrant smuggling "is big business" in states along the U.S. southern border.
Previously, Texas police discovered an 18-wheel tractor-trailer truck in the suburbs of San Antonio on the 27th local time, carrying 46 immigrant bodies inside. The U.S. Department of Justice issued a document on the 29th local time, stating that the incident has resulted in 53 deaths and the truck driver has been arrested.
Picture source: KSAT TV station
When talking about the "Texas immigration tragedy" that occurred a few days ago, the American truck driver said that death is an ongoing part of the process of smuggling immigrants across the border every day. He said that truck drivers in "difficult situations" around him often accept offers to smuggle migrants: "They need money, they have to take care of their families, and sometimes they need to find some 'drastic' methods."
"Some of (these truck drivers) They are people from Central America . They come to the United States and stay here, (but) the only way they can make money is to smuggle immigrants."
The driver said that he has also been approached many times, hoping that he can. "Take this big order." He understood the temptation but said he would never do it because he didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt.
He said that immigrants die every day in trucks that are as hot as the "Gates of Hell". "They (immigrants) would rather die than go back to Nicaragua ."
For him, the recent "immigration tragedy" in San Antonio, Texas, happened very close to his home. His father was also illegally smuggled to the United States from Mexico and was eventually pardoned during the administration of Ronald Reagan, the then U.S. President in the 1980s.
“My dad cries every time he talks about it. He didn’t eat for four days, ran away from Border Patrol multiple times, and had to hide in a trash can overnight. It was a traumatic thing. "He had to go through so much to get here," he said.
And immigrants who cross the border still have to go through it every day. "It's terrible, people die all the time," the truck driver added. "People sometimes starve to death, sometimes they drown in the Rio Grande (a river that separates the United States and Mexico). Migrants smuggling across From Guatemala , El Salvador , Bolivia , and Mexico.
27 The tragedy in Texas shocked the United States. According to a report by Time magazine on June 30, local time, on the 29th, Texas Governor Greg. · Greg Abbott (Greg Abbott) announced that he will increase the number of border checkpoints to catch people smugglers.
It is worth noting that in the latest report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on the U.S.-Mexico border, Customs and Border Protection agents intercepted immigrants a total of 239,000 times in May, nearly an increase from January. 55%. This number also set a new record for interceptions at the U.S.-Mexico border.
According to statistics from the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM), at least 650 migrants died while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021, the most since death tracking began in 2014; the cumulative death toll reached nearly 3,000 people.
According to a report by " CNN " (CNN) on June 30, local time, in the past 24 hours, three separate human smuggling cases occurred in Texas, and at least six people died.
One of the tragedies occurred on the 30th local time. A car carrying illegal immigrants crashed while evading police enforcement in Encinal, Texas, killing at least four people and seriously injuring three others. Texas Department of Public Safety officials called it "another deadly human smuggling incident."
CNN report screenshot
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