Greg Abbott was the most eager. Shortly after the chilling discovery – the police hadn’t even briefed the media – the Texas governor pushed responsibility: “These deaths are on Joe Biden,” the Republican tweeted. “They are a result of his deadly open borders policy.”
With this accusation by the president, the Republican tried to explain one of the worst migration tragedies in recent US history. A worker heard calls for help on Monday on the outskirts of San Antonio and made a gruesome discovery in a parked truck: The vehicle was bursting with people, many of them dead. They were believed to be migrants who had entered the United States illegally. The next border crossing to Mexico is about 225 kilometers away, San Antonio is considered a transit point for immigrants who want to go further inland or who are smuggled.
The police have recovered 46 bodies so far, more than 15 people were taken to nearby hospitals, two have already died there. They suffered from heat stroke and were dehydrated, according to the chief of the local fire department. On Monday it was up to 40 degrees hot in San Antonio, which could have killed many of those helplessly trapped, but the cause has not yet been clearly clarified. The Ministry of Internal Security has started investigations with other authorities. Above all, they are looking for the driver of the truck, who apparently left the people to their fate. According to the police chief, three suspects have been arrested. Whether the driver is among them remains open. Police are also looking for other survivors at the scene.
The tragedy hits the United States at a time when more illegal border crossings are being registered than at any time since records began in 2000: In May, the Customs and Border Protection Agency on the border with Mexico counted 239,418 encounters who are then either imprisoned or sent back. The number has been over 200,000 for three months, and in 2019 it was only half as high. The rapid increase has political explosive power, because the Republicans always blame the Democrats around President Biden. In addition to the issues of abortion and gun rights, the migration issue is also dividing the country: Republicans are demanding strict border controls or complete closure, Democrats are in favor of a more open immigration policy. Both parties are thus mobilizing their core constituency.
That’s how Greg Abbott’s urgent tweet reads. In November, the Texan wants to be re-elected for a third term as governor, migration is his central campaign issue. He is tough and uncompromising, has already pumped billions of dollars into local border security and, in response to Biden’s allegedly lax migration policy, launched the “Operation Lone Star” military mission together with Mexico. He can always order the Texas National Guard to the border to throw back immigrants. In November 2021 he sent almost 10,000 soldiers.
According to critics, however, the current increase in illegal border crossings can be traced back to an emergency regulation issued by the previous government under Donald Trump. In March 2020, in view of the impending corona pandemic, the controversial “Title 42” in the US health law came into force. This allows border officials to turn migrants away without them being able to ask for asylum. Biden’s government is continuing the regulation, but a suspension failed due to resistance from the Republicans. Border officials have turned back almost two million migrants under Title 42 instead of detaining them. This increases the number of returnees: more than a quarter of the people apprehended at the border meet the officers at least twice. In 2019 it was only seven percent.
Trump’s plan for an “impenetrable” wall to Mexico, once his biggest election promise, isn’t working either: the construction is derelict in many places, and where the ten-meter-high steel wall is, many people can climb it. With the difference that now people are injured or die when they fall.
The reaction of a Democrat to the Abbott tweet shows how much the topic is politically divisive. Texan Joaquin Castro replied to the governor, “46 people die, and you go straight to the right-wing talking points. Worthless.” In Castro’s eyes, the dead in San Antonio should be a reminder “that we need a safe, orderly way for people to apply for asylum.”