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THIS TUESDAY, June 28, we woke up with a lump in our throats: almost 50 undocumented immigrants — according to authorities — were found dead in an abandoned truck in San Antonio, Texas. It is a monstrous tragedy that highlights the terrible border crisis that exists in the territorial limits between Mexico and the United States.
The truck where the bodies were found was a tractor-trailer, which, according to officials of the San Antonio Fire Department, had no drinking water, causing the migrants to endure inhumane conditions and the intense heat of the southern border, ultimately leading to their death because of dehydration.
San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said that a worker in the area heard a call for help and that’s when he found the truck with the doors half-open and the pile of bodies. That cry for help saved lives because 16 people were found still alive in addition to the numerous deceased. They were reportedly in need of urgent medical assistance and among the 16 survivors, there are 4 children.
Deadly Incidents in the U.S. Bother
This is the second tragedy of this style that occurs in the United States in less than a year and a half, it adds to the pickup truck carrying 25 immigrants that entered the country through a hole in the border fence in March 2021. This vehicle crashed into a truck about 30 miles from the border in Imperial Valley, California, leaving 13 people dead
Both last year’s and this year’s victims have a main responsible: President Joe Biden and his entire administration. These tragedies not only coincide with his arrival at the White House but also with the implementation of an evident open borders policy that created the worst migratory crisis of the century; breaking records for the arrival of migrants from different parts of Latin America and generating the collapse of almost the entire migratory system.
Biden’s Open Border Policies Are to Blame
The images and stories are genuinely terrible: women and men risking their lives crossing the Río Bravo while carrying children in their arms, criminal gangs taking advantage of the border anarchy to increase their criminal activity (drug smuggling and human trafficking); raped women, children in cages, dead migrants and American soldiers, a palpable humanitarian crisis, and an indiscriminate entry of illegal immigrants that does not allow for good criminal background checks.
This situation was provoked by Joe Biden himself, who in his eagerness to be the anti-Trump figure, dynamited practically all the immigration and security policies implemented by his predecessor. Those measures, together with his irresponsible pro-migration rhetoric, generated an evident call effect that ended up with caravans of migrants from different countries heading to the United States. Now, those migrants, who were moved by the empty promise of a warm and friendly welcome from an irresponsible administration, are suffering the consequences of this border crisis.
It was not only the wrong policies, but also their way of trying to solve the problems that it created. Instead of stepping up and leading this crisis, Biden delegated the task to the inexperienced Kamala Harris; who evidently failed as “czar of the border”. While the Federal Government still does not know how to act in the face of the migratory crisis, it is the Border States that are trying, at all costs, to combat and mitigate the damage. Texas is the main-affected state and its authorities have frankly collapsed.
The Mainstream Media’s Role in This Tragedy
Just as the Biden administration is directly to blame for the tragedies in Texas and California and the border humanitarian crisis, there are also indirect culprits: the traditional media.
When Trump was president, the mainstream media, which functions as an arm of the Democratic Party, constantly criticized the former president for his immigration policies. However, now not only do they not denounce and overlap border coverage, but they justify Biden by blaming Trump
While Trump’s immigration policies were not perfect — I covered stories that showed that the system was flawed — they were much more effective and clear than the current administration’s; so much so that in four years the immigration system worked efficiently, avoiding the massive collapse of the system and operating cordially with key allies such as Honduras, Guatemala and, above all, Mexico.
Today, Washington cannot even maintain cordial relations with the president of Guatemala or Mexico, in the midst of one of the worst migration crises ever seen. The almost 50 deaths in San Antonio, which may increase as the hours go by, should mark a before and after in the traditional press coverage of the immigration issue.
That only one sector of the press — the alternative, mostly conservative — has invested resources and efforts in denouncing the immigration crisis generated by Biden is a terrible precedent for journalism. The mainstream media, once and for all, must let go of the Biden-Harris White House on at least one issue. That this tragedy does not go unnoticed and has a clear responsibility is the least that journalism can do.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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