\n<\/p>\n
The train boxcar in which six migrants were found dead in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday, had left Long Beach, police officials said.<\/p>\n
Six victims from Honduras and Mexico were believed to have died of heatstroke during the deadly trip, but officials said Thursday they believe they boarded a boxcar of a Union Pacific train during a stop in Del Rio, Texas, on Saturday. <\/p>\n
“This tragedy weighs heavily on all of us,” Laredo Mayor Victor D. Trevino said during a press conference Thursday. “I understand that every life lost is a tragedy, but there are also crimes that go against humanity and our American principles.”<\/p>\n
Laredo Police Chief Miguel A. Rodriguez Jr. said Laredo police received a report of a body found in a boxcar at 3:21 p.m. Sunday. <\/p>\n
“That’s when we saw the bodies and we immediately started investigating,” Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n
A spokesperson for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement that a Union Pacific employee made the discovery. <\/p>\n
“(Homeland Security Investigations) is actively investigating this case as a possible human trafficking incident with the assistance of the Laredo Police Department and the Texas Rangers,” the spokesperson said. “Due to the ongoing investigation, no additional information can be released at this time.”<\/p>\n
Rodriguez said the preliminary investigation showed the victims included a woman and two men from Mexico and three men from Honduras. <\/p>\n
Investigators believe the train left Long Beach on Thursday, May 7 and was headed east toward Texas. On Saturday, May 9, the train reached Del Rio, Texas, where Rodriguez said investigators believe the migrants boarded the boxcar. <\/p>\n
The train then headed to the San Antonio area and Laredo, where the bodies were found. <\/p>\n
Rodriguez said Laredo police were assisting with the investigation, but the Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations were leading the investigation. <\/p>\n
“As soon as we became aware that this was a human trafficking situation, we contacted our partners through Homeland Security Investigations and our partners at Border Patrol,” Rodriguez said. <\/p>\n
In an email, a Union Pacific spokesperson said the company is assisting authorities in the investigation. <\/p>\n
“Union Pacific is saddened by these incidents and will continue to work closely with law enforcement,” the company said in a statement. <\/p>\n
During Thursday’s press conference, officials called the incident a tragedy and urged undocumented immigrants not to take such risks with their lives. Rodriguez said he was confident arrests would be made. <\/p>\n
“This is a stark reminder of the dangers of human trafficking,” Trevino said. \u201cThose responsible for trafficking human beings and keeping them in such dangerous and inhumane conditions must be held accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The train boxcar in which six migrants were found dead in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday, had left Long Beach, police officials said. Six victims from Honduras and Mexico were believed to have died of heatstroke during the deadly trip, but officials said Thursday they believe they boarded a boxcar of a Union Pacific train during<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":142119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[2429,30506,435,1324,8219,182,2489],"class_list":["post-142117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bible-verse","tag-beach","tag-carriage","tag-dead","tag-long","tag-migrants","tag-texas","tag-train"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":142120,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142117\/revisions\/142120"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}