Migrants Die In A Tractor-Trailer

Published July 25, 2017 at 10:00 AM CDT

San Antonio police officers investigate the scene where eight people were found dead in a tractor-trailer loaded with at least 30 others outside a Walmart store in stifling summer heat in what police are calling a horrific human trafficking case, Sunday, July 23, 2017, in San Antonio. (Eric Gay/AP)

The human smuggling tragedy in the Walmart parking lot. We’ll look at illegal border crossing now. And the latest on the wall.

It was a nightmare inside that truck. Maybe two hundred people packed in the back of the big rig sitting in the hot Texas sun. One tiny vent for ventilation. People just went down. When they opened the doors in the Walmart parking lot in San Antonio, it was death and horror. Ten dead now. Many more hospitalized. A human smuggling tragedy lighting up a nation’s immigration realities and debate. This hour On Point: we’re going to Texas and the tale of that truck. — Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Guillermo Contreras, senior reporter at the San Antonio Express-News. ( @gmaninfedland)

Roger Enriquez, associate professor and director of the Policy Studies Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio. ( @rogerenriquez)

Pete Saenz, mayor of Laredo, Texas, a town along the U.S.-Mexico Border. ( @MayorPeteSaenz)

Kevin Diaz, Washington correspondent for the Houston Chronicle. ( @DiazChron)

From Tom’s Reading List

San Antonio Express-News: San Antonio death toll in ‘horrific’ human trafficking reaches 10 — “A 10th person has been confirmed dead after immigrants were trapped inside a tractor-trailer at a Walmart parking lot, officials confirmed Monday morning. Several people are still in critical condition at local hospitals.”

CNN: Driver due in court after deaths of 10 migrants from sweltering truck — “The inhumane conditions from a boiling-hot tractor trailer have killed a 10th person in San Antonio — making it one of the deadliest human smuggling cases in recent history. Eight undocumented immigrants were found dead inside the truck, which was stopped at a San Antonio Walmart, early Sunday morning. Since then, two people who were hospitalized have died, officials said.”

Washington Post: Trump’s wall: The inside story of how the president crafts immigration policy — “The president began promoting the idea, aides explained, after a business acquaintance pitched it in one of the many conversations he has with friends — yet another example of how Trump often outsources his policy process, including an eagerness to entertain creative, even pie-in-the-sky notions.”