Migrants face high temperatures and risk their lives to cross the border

The alert for high temperatures does not stop human traffickers, who resort to any means of transportation to fulfill their mission of illegally smuggling immigrants into United States territory.

“We are not talking about one or two, we are talking about 20, 30 people who are inside that box breathing the same oxygen,” he told Voice of America Erick Estrada, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

A chain of events these days has revealed the unscrupulous actions of traffickers.

A total of 24 undocumented migrants hidden inside an abandoned tractor-trailer in Webb County were discovered by the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Shortly afterward, another state trooper stopped a pickup truck pulling a horse trailer in Hidalgo County. The content? 27 migrants crammed inside the trailer, who were processed by the Border Patrol, the driver was arrested.

“They promote that it will be a safe trip, but we have seen this on many occasions, many incidents, that this is not the case,” says Estrada.

Last week the United States National Weather Service warned of an imminent heat wave for several parts of California, Nevada and Arizona.

The heat wave is expected to bring triple-digit Fahrenheit temperatures to areas like Phoenix, a place that saw a record 31 consecutive days of at least 110°C (43.3°C) last summer. F).

The warning from Andrés García, another of the Border Patrol spokespersons, is about the danger that such a trip entails.

“Inside a box of a trailer or a truck, the temperature can rise 15 to 20 degrees more, it is a considerable amount that obviously over the course of an hour, hour and a half, can be fatal for a person,” he points out. Garcia.

“The combination of heat and humidity inside a trailer box like this can quickly create dangerous and fatal conditions for the lives of migrants due to the lack of air circulation as temperatures increase with the presence of human heat.”

The call to the general public is that, if they see anything suspicious about cases of human trafficking, this be reported to the authorities, in order to avoid loss of human life.

[Con información de Víctor Hugo Castillo, periodista de la Voz de América desde McAllen, Texas]

Connect with the Voice of America! Subscribe to our channels Youtube, WhatsApp and to the newsletter. Turn on notifications and follow us on Facebook, x and Instagram.