A Statement from the Progressive Center for a Pan-American Project
About 50 migrant workers killed yesterday in San Antonio, Texas
Yesterday afternoon the news was released that in the city of San Antonio, Texas, in the United States, at least 50 migrant workers had suffocated to death inside the box of a trailer, another 16 were hospitalized. So far it is known that 22 of the deceased migrant workers are Mexican.
Immediately there were reactions from the authorities of the countries involved. While the Mexican authorities, through Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard, regret the events and assure that they will support the relatives of the victims to transport the remains of the deceased migrant workers, the United States authorities politicize the issue with accusations of a weak immigration policy by President Biden.
The United Trade Union Coordinator of Mexico (CSUM) in the face of this tragedy accuses the authorities of the two countries for their responsibility in the events; because the current immigration policy of the US government only aims to stop migration in a “more humane” way, but, strictly speaking, it remains the same anti-immigrant policy of former President Donald Trump; while the assistance programs that the Mexican government offers to Central American countries to contain migratory flows have no social impact.
This tragedy is not an isolated or casual event, so far this century there have been at least three other similar events and several more tragedies of migrants that occur while being persecuted by the Border Patrol.
It is true that there are mafias of human traffickers, but these only exist because anti-immigrant policies favor their proliferation, it is true that these mafias exploit the needs of migrant workers, but the main exploitation that migrant workers face continues to be that comes from their status as illegal migrants, since their labor and human rights are violated.
In the world, anti-immigrant policies are radicalized and give rise to mass murders such as the one that occurred last Friday, June24, in Melilla, Morocco, where 23 migrant workers were murdered by the border police and the gendarmerie of that country and whose responsibility reaches to the authorities of the Spanish State.
For the United Trade Union Coordinator of Mexico (CSUM) this situation will not change until we change the economic system that generates it, meanwhile we will continue denouncing discrimination and racism against migrant workers and promoting their organization and the defense of their rights as workers regardless of their nationality, origin or language; either in our country or in the United States.