Mexico’s president Tuesday ripped the “lack of control’’ at his country’s border with the United States — and “in the US interior’’ under the Biden administration — when addressing the latest smuggling tragedy.
At least 50 illegal immigrants died in a packed tractor-trailer amid 100-degree-plus temperatures in San Antonio, Texas on Monday — their bodies discovered after a desperate cry for help was heard coming from the abandoned vehicle.
“It happens because there is trafficking of people and a lack of control, in this case at the Mexican-US border, but also in the US interior,’’ Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at a morning press briefing, according to the San Antonio Express-News.
He added that the “tremendous tragedy’’ also came about because of the “poverty and desperation of our Central American brothers, and of Mexicans.’’
His criticism of the US comes as the White House continues to come under fire over what critics call its deadly lax immigrant policies — which they say have led to record-high encounters between migrants and US authorities at the border.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott led the charge Tuesday in blaming the Biden administration for Monday’s tragedy.
“These deaths are on Biden,’’ the Republican governor tweeted. “They are a result of his deadly open border policies.’’
Biden fired back in a statement Tuesday, calling “political grandstanding’’ during such a time “shameful.’’
The US ambassador to Mexico, Ken Salazar, tweeted Tuesday of Monday’s heartbreaking incident, “Smugglers and cartels profiting from human suffering must be held accountable.
“The horrific and tragic deaths of at least 50 human beings in San Antonio TX last night is the result of a broken and dysfunctional migration legal order, and underscores the imperative of #SummitAmericas Migration Declaration to provide safe, orderly, humane, and legal migration.’’
