EAGLE PASS, Texas — The ongoing heatwave impacting South Texas has claimed the lives of two migrants since Saturday, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection. Temperatures in the border city of Eagle Pass remained at or above 110 degrees Fahrenheit for nearly six consecutive days. The source revealed that two deceased migrants were located just north of the Texas border.
One of the deceased migrants was preliminarily identified as a 25-year-old Mexican national. The other, according to the source, remains unidentified. Both decedents were transported to a funeral home in Eagle Pass. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the exact cause of death, but officials believe the extreme heat is the likely cause.
Temperatures also increased the agency’s emergency calls regarding heat-related injuries. Luckily, the source says, specially trained agents with the agency’s Border Search Trauma and Rescue team (BORSTAR) and Emergency Medical Technician trained agents managed to deploy sufficiently to prevent some of the emergencies from resulting in loss of life.
Local law enforcement authorities are also receiving increased emergency distress calls from ranchers and migrants located in more remote areas around the city. The source told Breitbart Texas the agency expects distress calls to continue as the heat wave is expected to continue for the next several weeks. Temperatures in the border region are expected to remain above 100 degrees Fahrenheit several weeks into July.
The source says that these two deaths are likely not an accurate total number of deceased migrants who have perished attempting to elude apprehension by the Border Patrol during the current heat wave. The dangers of attempting to traverse ranches to leave the border area on foot are daunting.
“There are probably more that have not been able to get a cell phone signal farther into the brush that couldn’t make the call,” the source explained. “The smugglers are not going to stop to help them. They’re doomed.”
High temperatures can potentially cost migrant lives not only on isolated ranches in South Texas. Migrant smugglers are also transporting migrants in closed tractor-trailers on border-region highways. Nearly one year ago, 53 migrants perished in one tractor-trailer migrant smuggling venture near San Antonio, Texas. On July 22, 2022, authorities were alerted to the abandoned vehicle on the city’s outskirts and discovered the gruesome scene where 48 migrants were initially found dead in the enclosed trailer.
Over the following days, five additional migrants who were taken to area hospitals succumbed to heat-related injuries.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, in March, Police responding to a 911 call from inside a rail car near Uvalde, Texas, on found two migrants dead, according to law enforcement sources on the scene. Five additional migrants were unresponsive and had to be airlifted to San Antonio-area hospitals. Five other migrants were transported by ambulance to a local hospital.
In 2022, a study by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) declared the United States-Mexico land border the most dangerous land crossing in the world. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 800 deaths during the year. That total only captures migrant deaths that involve Border Patrol agent recoveries. The number does not reflect those migrant remains discovered in areas away from the border by law enforcement authorities that do not involve the agency.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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