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M aj 21. 2003
1
Justice Sought Following Immigrant Deaths
Julian and Sayer hears the
news that her brother-in-law
died while trying to sneak to
Florida to work in a tomato
packing plant Thursday May
15, 2003, in Pozos, Mexico.
Eighteen illegal immigrants
were found dead from
suffocation and heat exhaus
tion in and near a truck
parked at a south Texas
highway rest stop not far from
the city of Victoria early on
May 14, 2003, an emergency
services official said. (AP
Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
An unidentified body is transferred to a mobile morgue as officials investigate a site near Victoria.
Texas where 18 people, believed to be illegal immigrants, were found dead in and around the
trailer o f an 18-wheeler stopped at a truck stop. (AP photo)
Driver Charged in 18 Texas Truck Deaths
(AP) — A New York-based
trucker was charged in federal court
Thursday with transporting illegal
immigrants after 18 members o f a
group abandoned inside a semi
trailer at a South Texas truck stop
died.
T y ro n e
W illia m s
of
Schenectady, N.Y., was charged
with transporting and harboring
aliens and conspiracy to transport
and harbor aliens, Victoria County
District Attorney M.P. “ Dexter”
Eaves said.
Two people believed to have
accompanied Williams were being
sought, and other suspects could
still be identified. Eaves said.
“We want to get every bit o f
justice for these guys,” Eaves said.
“ I want this insurance for these 18
people - that they did not die in
vain. I want an accounting.” Will
iams likely will also face state
charges, Eaves said.
W illiam s’ wife, Karen, told the
Houston Chronicle in a story for its
online edition that her husband
normally hauls watermelons from
Minutes later, one hung a ban
the border to the Northeast. She danna out o f a hole in the trailer’s
said he told her the trailer was hi back door as it sped north on U.S.
jacked and that he dropped the Highway 77. Another motorist saw
trailer "forhisow n safety and ran." the signal, but his mobile phone
The immigrants - front Mexico, El w asn’t working, so he couldn’t call
authorities in time.
The trailer had arrived at the
truck stop about an hour before
authorities got a call about an un
specified disturbance there around
2a.m. Wednesday, VictoriaCounty
Sheri ffM ichael Ratcliffsaid.
When authorities reached the
trailer, 13 people were dead inside
and four other bodies were on the
ground.
A boy, 5 or 6 years old, was
- Victoria County District
among the dead, and another per
Attorney M.P. “Dexter” Eaves
son in the group died at a hospital
Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras several hours later.
- were locked inside the back o f a
The smugglers had apparently
sweltering, airless semitrailer and unhitched the trailer at a truck stop
tried desperately to save themselves. near Victoria, about 175 miles from
Onedialed911 onacellularphone the Mexican border, then drove off.
and pleaded for help in Spanish. Insulation around several small
But by the time a South Texas po holes in the back door w as scraped
lice dispatcher found someone to away, suggesting the immigrants
translate, the call had been lost.
had tried to claw their way to get air.
™ / want this
insurance fo r these
18 people - that
they did not die in
vain. I want an
accounting.
Truck Tragedy Victims Drawn by High Wages
(A P )- Roberto Rivera hoped to
be home in seven months. His wife
was pregnant and the 24-year-old
wanted to sneak across the U.S.
border for the firs, time and make
$ 1,000 before his second child was
bom.
“ ‘ With the pregnancy, I have no
other choice,’” his brother, Julian
Rivera, recalled Roberto telling his
family. “ ‘I’ll go, and come right
back.’”
But Roberto and his brother
Serafm became one o f 18 migrants
killed in the deadliest immigrant
smuggling incident on the U.S.
border since 1987. Their trailer was
abandoned in Texas, with estimated
70 to 85 migrants trapped and strug
gling for air as temperatures inside
grew unbearable.
Family members say the risky
trip was a matter o f desperation, no,
choice.
“N obody goes because they
want to,” said Roberto’s brother-
in-law, Samuel Gamez. “They have
families and they need the money
to support them.”
Tw elve o f the dead have been
identified as M exicans; the other
Some banks charge you
for cancelled checks even if
you have free checking.
7-
six dead w ere apparently Central
A m ericans who also w en, north
in search o f a better life, although
the M exican consul in H ouston,
E duardo Ibarrola, said som e o f
the dead have not yet been iden
tified.
Ibarrola said U.S. authorities were
offering to let some o f the 32 survi
vors - the ones able to serve as
witnesses against suspected immi
grant traffickers - stay in the United
States during the investigation.
Others may be returned to Mexico.
But no one will be returning to
the Rivera brothers' hometown o f
Pozos - named for a web o f irriga
tion pipes that snake through this
hamlet o f4 ,0 0 0 ,180 miles north o f
MexicoCity. Here, the Rivera broth
ers dug wells, worked construction
and picked tomatoes, carrots and
strawberries.
But work was only avai lable some
weeks, at $7 per day.
T hat’s the main reason why
Pozos is a town o f grandparents
andchildren: Most men and women
o f working age head north.
Serafm had previously spent two
years in Florida, where a tomato
packing plant paid undocumented
workers $4 an hour - wel I below the
U.S. minimum wage but much higher
than wages back home.
“S erafm w as alw ays happy
there," said his mother, Adelina
Gamez. "H e’d call and say, ‘ Here a
man earns a fair wage for his work. ’
Serafm left behind two young
children. Other Mexican victims
included a 31 -year-old father and
his 6-year-old son.
Sera fin, Roberto and a neighbor,
Hector Ramirez, set offM ay S head
ing to the border city o f Reynosa,
across from McAllen, Texas. A
group o f smugglers charged them
nearly $2,000 each to cross the
border.
A lthough they had previously
crossed w ith oth er sm ugglers,
they chose to go with a new group
that prom ised a faster route to
Florida.
It was a fatal decision. The smug
glers apparently unhitched the
trailer at a Victoria, Texas, truck
stop, 175 miles from the Mexican
border, and drove off, leaving the
migrants in the airless, overheated
container.
J Lo,
Telemundo
Team Up
v o - vc ./ a fe ?-.,.
Singer/actress/designer Jennifer
| Lopez has a new project up her
sleeve: creating shows for
Telemundo. Lopez and production
partner Benny Medina announced
the long term deal with the Span
ish network. Their first project is
a novella about a young Latina
from the barrio who dreams of
becoming a star. Sound familiar?
An airdate is not set.
Fox Meets With Former President Bush
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Í
A P)— Former Presi
“ I believe things are
dent George Bush reas
going well and are get
sured President Vicente
ting better every day
Fox that U.S. and Mexi
with this relationship,”
can relations are still
Fox said.
strong, despite their dif
Fox may meet the
ferences over the war in
current U.S. president
Iraq, M exico’s foreign
early next month at an
secretary said.
ex p an d ed G ro u p o f
The elder Bush be
Eight summit in France,
lieves that "the great
Derbez said.
friendship" between his
D erb ez sa id th e
son and Fox remains
former U.S. president
firm, Luis Ernesto Derbez
and Fox also discussed
said after the hourlong
ways to improve eco
meeting last week. Bush
nom ic relatio n s b e
did not speak with re
tween the three part
porters.
ners in the North Ameri
Fox and the current
can Free Trade Agree
U .S. p resid en t w ere
m en t: M e x ico , the
both elected in 2000
U n ite d S ta te s an d
and at first established
Canada.
unusually warm rela
U .S .
T re a s u re r
tions. But the U.S. ad
Rosario M arin visited
Mexico's President Vicente Fox shake hands
ministration becam e ir
with former President George Bush in Mexico M exico last w eek and
ritated when M exico
said there w ould be
City. (AP photo)
d id n 't use its U.N. Se
no rep risals ag ain st
curity Council seat to support a U.S. invasion M exico for its anti-w ar stance. At the sam e time,
o f Iraq.
D erbez traveled to W ashington, prom ising to
Fox said last week that the visit would be an support U.S. efforts to keep the 2,000-m ile com
opportunity to “strengthen the relationship" with mon border free o f terrorists.
the United States and “overcome differences" that
To help in that effort, Mexico has tightened its
arose out o f M exico's position on Iraq.
own visa regulations.
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