Undocumented Migrants: Victims of a Deadly Car Crash

We really need comprehensive immigration reform plus an end to Operation Gatekeeper and the militarization of the southern border. Without those efforts, individuals who are pushed north to the U.S. because of global economic policies will continue to die in their attempts to find work to feed their families.

From MySanAntonio.com:

Bloodstained pavement, gashed tree trunks and a twisted barbed-wire fence marked the end of a desperate journey.

On Sunday night, 22 Central Americans and their Mexican-born driver piled into a white Ford F-250 for what would be the last stage on their trip north. They crammed themselves into the truck’s cab and lay down in its bed — one atop another — as the vehicle cruised along U.S. 59 between Beeville and Goliad.

By Monday, more than half were dead. Most died at the scene, and the others died at hospitals to which they’d been rushed after the overloaded truck careened off the road and slammed into a large, twin-trunked oak tree.

“It’s certainly disturbing when you walk up and see the yellow and blue blankets that you know are covering victims, and realize that there are still five or six bodies in the vehicle because it’s so badly damaged that they can’t get them out,” Goliad County Judge David Bowman said.

It was the county’s deadliest incident in recent memory, said Bowman, who performed the gruesome task of pronouncing 11 people dead at the scene. Three more died at hospitals Sunday and Monday. Among the dead was the driver.

Ten men and three women, two of them juveniles, all believed to be in the country illegally, traveled thousands of miles from Central America to have their lives end on this rural stretch of highway. Nine more were in hospitals across the state Monday evening, including five in San Antonio. According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, they came from Guatemala and Honduras. Officials said they were still working to identify the victims. Read more…

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