A “heartbreaking” emergency number from a man who said he and about 80 other migrants were trapped in the back of a tanker truck and struggling to breathe has sparked a massive search in the San Antonio, Texas area, the Bexar County sheriff said. to CBS. News on Wednesday.
At about 10 p.m. on Feb. 8, a man called 911 and told the dispatcher that he and other undocumented migrants were trapped, according to a recording of the call from CBS News.
“We need help,” the caller said in Spanish. Others could be heard screaming, crying, and breathing heavily during the nearly four-minute conversation.
“We’re dying,” the man said, hearing others begging for help.
“We’re out of oxygen,” he added.
“How many people are there?” the dispatcher asked shortly afterwards.
“80 people,” replied the man. The dispatcher, sounding surprised, asked again, “How many? 80?” – but the conversation ended a moment later.
Dispatchers received another phone call shortly afterwards. The caller told the dispatcher that he and the other migrants were still trapped in the truck and did not know where they were.
“We don’t see anything, we’re in a tanker,” the man said, adding that he believed the truck was parked on the side of the road “because cars are passing by.”
“You literally hear people think they are a stone’s throw from death,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told CBS News. Salazar said the calls were “heartbreaking” and the emergency center was “visibly shocked.”
Local and federal agencies, including immigration and customs enforcement, are investigating the calls. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has released surveillance footage of what it says may be the truck in question – but Salazar noted that it’s difficult to locate a specific white tank truck in or around a major city with several major highways.
“There is always hope,” said Salazar, when asked if the migrants could still be alive two days after the call.
“I can’t even imagine what they went through,” he added, expressing concern that the truck driver may have left the vehicle when he realized the gravity of the situation.
“I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if this man, or people, parked this trailer, walked away from it and left it behind,” he said. “These people are trapped and God knows what’s going to happen to them at that moment.”
When asked if he thought the calls could be a fraud, Salazar said he would “bet the rest of my salary for the rest of my life that this isn’t a fraud.”
“That was very real, what we heard,” he said.
Salazar noted that “thousands” of people are victims of human trafficking every day, saying the 911 calls are a “very grim reminder of exactly what these people are facing.”
“These people are … crammed into this truck that they can’t get out of themselves,” he added. “They are at the mercy of these human traffickers.”
In a broader statement released Wednesday on border control numbers, Customs and Border Protection pointed out the danger of human smuggling operations.
“Too often, our agents find human remains or encounter lost migrants sick, injured and abandoned by smugglers. We also see migrants exposed to inhumane conditions, trapped in tractor trailers, car trunks, train wagons and overcrowded storage areas. It’s incredibly dangerous, especially in the era of COVID, ”the agency said.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez contributed to reporting.