49 minutes ago
Credit, Getty Images
caption,
Wanda Pérez hugs Laura Yohultlahuiz during the vigil for the dead migrants
“Look at me: do I look like an American to you? Do you know how many times I’ve been called? bean eater (phrase used pejoratively in the US to refer to Latin Americans, particularly Mexicans, which literally translates to “bean eaters”)? How could I see my mother enslaving herself to get official documents? And you ask me why I’m so moved?”
At the vigil in honor of the migrants found dead in an abandoned truck in San Antonio, Texas, on Monday (June 27) and those who later died in the city’s hospitals a total of 53 people, including 40 men and 13 women Wanda Pérez Torrescano can’t hide her anger.
“We honor people whose families still don’t know they’ve passed, who are still waiting for that call that says, ‘Mom, I’m at the limit, I’m fine,'” she says forcefully, to the mic in hand , in front of dozens of people who gathered Wednesday (6/29) in Travis Park in downtown San Antonio.
“And I know that because I was on the other end of the phone.”
Born in Mexico City and raised in San Antonio, she’s not the only one who feels that the greatest migration tragedy on American soil is her tragedy of the ages.
Just as solemnly, Jessica from Honduras recalled the day before standing in the shoes of migrants left without water and air conditioning in a truck in a 40 degree outside temperature.
“I came here when I was 14, also in a truck, and I passed out because of the heat,” she said emotionally during the vigil.
Later asked if she wanted to tell her story to the BBC, she replied:
“It continues to stir up a lot of emotions in me. I still have a lot to process and I don’t feel ready to go into detail.”
Credit, Getty Images
caption,
A woman at the vigil holds a sign that reads, “Immigrants Built America”
While all of this was happening in historic downtown San Antonio, other people paid tribute to the dead at the spot where the truck was found: a dusty road between a lumberyard and a railroad track, in a landscape dotted with auto parts stores.
The first two colored crosses were put up on Tuesday by Angelita Olvera, the daughter of a Bolivian man, and Debra Ponce, who warned: “We have to keep an eye on Texas because civil rights as we know them are going to change. “
Since then, this little corner has been filled with flowers and candles like those placed by Gabriela from Honduras and her two daughters, and with posters asking for respect and solidarity. Artist Roberto Márquez, who crossed into the United States from Tijuana 40 years ago, paints a mural reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica.
Yes, migration is ever present in this city just 250 km north of the Mexican border.
Credit, Getty Images
caption,
The signs on the street where the truck was found
Key city for migrant smuggling
Experts and organizations the BBC consulted for this report as well as officials who asked not to publish their names describe the city of 2.5 million people as a “transit hub,” a strategic place where multiple routes from Migrants converge surrounded by highways that crisscross the country from north to south and east to west.
Edward Reyna, a security guard at the logging company located just meters from where the truck was parked, has lost count of the number of times he saw Mexicans and Central Americans disembark from the passing train alongside people of other nationalities.
“I knew sooner or later someone was going to get hurt,” he told the BBC.
“The cartels that bring them don’t care.”
Credit, Leire Ventas
caption,
Roberto Márquez paints a mural at the intersection where the truck was found
The migrants he encounters during his work shifts are the ones who have not been intercepted by immigration authorities.
In May, the Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) recorded nearly 240,000 flagrants, a third more than in the same month last year.
This despite the fact that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 and two months later issued a “disaster declaration” that allowed him to deploy the National Guard to the border.
All to try to stem the surge in border crossings, which he attributes to US President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
Credit, Getty Images
caption,
San Antonio is about 250 km from the Mexican border
But migrants continue to arrive and travel across the state, some hiding in trucks, which is fairly common practice in this border area and elsewhere, Guadalupe CorreaCabrera tells the BBC.
CorreraCabrera, a professor at George Mason University in Virginia, has been studying migration routes for years, including those that run from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, to Laredo, in the United States, and pass through the main land customs post for goods in the United States hemisphere .
That alone makes it impossible to control all the loads that pass through this bridge every day, the expert explains.
“There are no official figures, but it is estimated that less than 5% (of the cargo) are examined.”
However, she clarifies that smuggling migrants in trucks does not necessarily start in Mexico. Based on testimony she gathered herself, CorreraCabrera says in some cases drug dealers pick them up in trucks as early as the Texas side.
That’s what the Department of Homeland Security investigators leading the investigation happened Monday in the abandoned truck case, Congressman Henry Cuellar told the AP.
Credit, Getty Images
caption,
A young woman leaves flowers at the site where the truck was found
those who go; those who stay
Regardless of how they arrive, by whatever mode of transportation, most migrants arriving in San Antonio are just in transit, immigration officials confirm. They usually stay in accommodation provided by various organizations that support them, at the airport or at the bus station.
But there are those who stay, like Lemi, a Cuban who arrived four years ago and works as a taxi driver in the city. His plan is to go to Florida with his wife and 11monthold son sometime next year.
Or his compatriot José who, after great difficulties in the Darién jungle, between Colombia and Panama, Ecuador and other countries he crossed, crossed to the United States and surrendered to immigration in May.
As soon as he was released, he took a bus—on which he told me his story—to San Antonio.
Credit, Leire Ventas
caption,
At the site where the truck was found is a sign that reads “53 people” with the word “migrants” crossed out.
Another who has remained in the city, at least for now, is Carlos, a 34yearold Venezuelan migrant who has also crossed several countries to get there.
When he reached the southern border of Mexico, he decided the best thing to do would be to head north on a motorcycle.
“In Monclova (a city on the US border with Mexico) I had an accident, they operated on me and now I have a sign here,” he says, pointing to his left thigh.
While he’s strengthening his leg to work, he’s at Pousada Guadalupe, run by Father Phil Ley.
Credit, Leire Ventas
caption,
Father Phil Ley runs a migrant shelter in San Antonio
The native Indian set up the first refugee camp in San Antonio 16 years ago.
“I started seeing people who were sent out of hospitals because they were injured or they were diabetic and needed dialysis. Until a lawyer (specializing in immigration) asked me for permission to place a client who had just turned 18 and could no longer stay at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for minors centre,” he tells the BBC.
“That’s what got around to other lawyers,” he says, and his asylum turned out to be particularly suitable for young migrants. On Wednesday there were 21 of them.
“There will be another one tomorrow and another one on Saturday,” he says.
When asked what happened to the abandoned truck carrying migrants, he said it was a shame that “makes him sad and angry at the same time”.
It’s the same feelings Wanda Pérez shared with those in attendance at the Wednesday Watch, people who feel the tragedy is their own, the same feelings of everyone who spoke to the BBC for this report, calling the event a “mass murder”. .
“Tragedies like this make the problem visible and at the same time make us think about how sophisticated these networks are, how many people and how much money are involved, and how little we know about all of this,” concludes researcher CorreraCabrera.
Have you already watched our new videos? youtube? Subscribe to our channel!