The death of around 50 migrants discovered in an overheated truck in San Antonio, Texas, has highlighted the divisions within the American political class. Observers are calling for better treatment of migrants at borders to prevent such tragedies from repeating themselves.
The ongoing investigation suggests that the migrants discovered Monday by a municipal worker in San Antonio were part of a human smuggling operation from Mexico. The death toll from the tragedy now stands at 51. Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said 22 victims were from Mexico, seven from Guatemala, and two from Honduras. “It is a huge misfortune,” he noted. The other migrants are in the process of being identified.
“This tragedy is unfortunately not a big surprise, because migration policies are tightening more and more,” laments France-Isabelle Langlois, Executive Director of Amnesty International Canada Francophone.
In recent years, the United States has indeed toughened its treatment of migrants at its land borders. For example, Title 42, a policy initiated under the Trump administration and ordered by a federal judge on May 20, 2022 to continue under the current administration, uses the pandemic and disease transmission risks as a pretext to prevent migrants to cross at the border.
So anyone trying to cross the border without a visa can still be deported, even an asylum seeker.
“There is a hardening of policies towards migrants, people are struggling to be declared as refugees, and to this is added a military reinforcement at the border”, maintains Jorge Pantaleón, co-holder of the Chair of Studies on Americas from the University of Montreal. He fears that this type of policy will lead to an increase in the number of illegal and dangerous attempts to cross the border, as was the case for the migrants found in San Antonio on Monday.
A divided political class
“These deaths are attributed to Biden. They are the result of his deadly policy of open borders,” attacked the Republican Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott. Mr. Abbott, however, did not blame Donald Trump when a similar tragedy, which claimed 10 lives, occurred in San Antonio in 2017.
President Joe Biden, for his part, indicated that this drama illustrated the need to fight against “a criminal industry which brews several billion dollars”.
The American political class seems to be divided between Republican politicians who are tough on the approach to the border and Democrats who are struggling, in the current context, to open the borders to match their ambitions. For example, despite promises of openness from the Democrats, Texas is building its own wall on the Mexican border.
“In fact, the policies under Biden are not very open,” says France-Isabelle Langlois. She denounces a “very difficult” status quo for migrants.
Calls to Action
“It is both the states from which the migrants come, and all the policies of the American states between them that are at the origin of such events; we have to work on poverty and endemic violence,” concludes France-Isabelle Langlois.
Jorge Pantaleón denounces a climate of “criminalization” of migrants in the United States. It calls for better collaboration between States to alleviate the difficulties relating to migratory flows.
On the ground, San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he “hopes that those responsible for placing these people in such inhumane conditions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Three people have been arrested so far, but local police chief William McManus said he was not sure of their involvement in the tragedy.
With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press