Another instance of illegal immigrants, risking their lives to enter the United States, has come to light – once again from Texas. There were 17 of them packed in the rear of a tractor-trailer that was locked and positioned in the open at a gas station. An anonymous phone call from Mexico alerted the police in Texas who rescued them.
Rescue mission of the Texas police
Valley Central reports that according to Edinburg Police Department Chief David White, the 17 illegal immigrants may have been locked inside the vehicle for eight to nine hours and did not require any medical attention.
However, as a humanitarian gesture, the police provided them with pizza and water after the rescue.
The anonymous phone call had come from a relative of one of the 17, and the message he passed on to the police was that the people were cooped up in the vehicle and were battling with the heat inside the locked up tractor-trailer. The immigrants were from Romania, Honduras, Guatemala, and Mexico and they wanted to come to the United States in search of a better future. Two Cubans, who were in charge of the vehicle, have been detained.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents are already on the case and have begun their investigations.
In this connection, it may be noted that this is not the first case of movement of such persons into the United States by road transport.
There was a recent case where eight persons were found dead inside a container and two more died later in hospital under similar circumstances. It happened in San Antonio, also in Texas.
The US-Mexico border wall
The border of Mexico with the United States is a long one that runs for over 3000-miles and walls are existing on certain stretches.
Since it is not feasible to build walls in difficult terrains or over the rivers, the illegal immigrants take advantage of these gaps in the fence to cross over into America. They come looking for a better life.
When on his presidential campaign, Donald Trump had promised to build a continuous border wall between the two countries to prevent entry of illegal immigrants and drug traffickers into America.
The cost of the proposed wall would run into billions of dollars, and Trump had said that Mexico would bear the cost, but there is no confirmation on whether Mexico has agreed to bear the burden. Specifications for the wall have already been drawn up and are being fine-tuned and work on building the prototypes is expected to begin soon. However, from reports in the media, it is seen that there is already a significant drop in the number of illegal crossovers and the proposed wall may not be required.
