In June 2022, 53 migrants died in the back of a tractor-trailer while being smuggled into the United States. Two of the men in the truck that day were brothers. Only one of them survived:
As extreme dehydration set in, they ceased sweating, their skin becoming hot to the touch. Electrolyte depletion can trigger a range of symptoms: muscle cramps, brain swelling, nausea, loss of coordination, delirium, and seizures. Then, as their body temperatures climbed above 105 degrees, their cells began to die and their organs began to fail. Their final moments before slipping out of consciousness were agonizing.
Mariano squeezed Begaí’s hand. “I can’t take the pain in my chest,” he said. Begaí felt like he was submerged underwater, as if each labored inhalation was a smaller sip from the surface. “They’re murdering us in here,” he said to Mariano. His mouth and limbs twisted involuntarily. “We’re not going to die in here,” Begaí repeated over and over.
More picks about immigration
A Lone Louisiana Lawyer’s Fight against Trump’s Deportations
“Louisiana is home to a higher concentration of migrant detention centers than almost anywhere else in the country. Many in the region don’t seem to mind too much. Lawyer Christopher Kinnison, though, is an exception.”
In the Shadow of an Immigrant Detention Center, a Small House Offers Refuge
” Amid rising ICE arrests, volunteers provide aid—a meal, a bed, gas money—to anyone visiting someone detained in remote rural Georgia.”
A Theology of Smuggling
“In the early 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration galvanized the Sanctuary Movement.”
