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A “heartbreaking” 911 call from a man who said he and around 80 other migrants were trapped in the back of a tanker and had difficulty breathing prompted a massive search in the San area. Antonio, Texas, the Bexar County Sheriff told CBS. News Wednesday.
At around 10 p.m. on February 8, a man called 911 and told the dispatcher that he and other undocumented migrants had been trapped, according to a recording of the call obtained by CBS News.
“We need help,” the caller said in Spanish. Others could be heard screaming, crying and breathing heavily throughout the nearly four-minute call.
“We are dying,” the man said, as others could be heard asking for help.
“We are out of oxygen,” he added.
“How many people are there?” the dispatcher asked shortly after.
“80 people,” replied the man. The dispatcher, looking surprised, asked again – “How much? 80?” – but the call ended a few moments later.
Dispatchers received another call shortly after. 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 are inside a tanker truck,” the man said, adding that he thought the truck was parked on the side of the road “because cars are passing by.”
“You literally hear from people who believe they are minutes away from death,” Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar told CBS News. Salazar said the calls were “heartbreaking” and left 911 dispatchers “visibly shaken”.
Local and federal agencies, including immigration and customs enforcement, are investigating the appeals. The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office has released surveillance footage of what it says is the truck in question – but Salazar noted the difficulty in locating a specific white tanker in or around a large city with multiple main highways.
“There is always hope,” said Salazar, when asked if the migrants could still be alive two days after making the call.
“I can’t even imagine what they went through,” he added, expressing fear that the truck driver might have abandoned the vehicle once he realized the gravity of the situation.
“I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if this guy, or people, parked this trailer, walked away from it and left it,” he said. “These people are trapped and God knows what will happen to them at this point.”
When asked if he thought the calls could be a hoax, Salazar said he would bet “the rest of my paychecks for the rest of my life on it not being a hoax.” “.
“It was very real, what we were hearing,” he said.
Salazar noted that “thousands” of people are trafficked every day, and said 911 calls provide “a very grim reminder of what these people are facing.”
“These people are… crammed into this truck from which they have no way out,” he added. “They are at the mercy of these traffickers.”
In a larger statement released Wednesday on border control numbers, customs and border protection highlighted the danger of human trafficking operations.
“Too often our officers find human remains or encounter lost migrants who are sick, injured and abandoned by smugglers. We also see migrants subjected to inhumane conditions locked in semi-trailers, car trunks, wagons and crowded hiding places. It’s incredibly dangerous, especially in the era of COVID, ”the agency said.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez contributed reporting.
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