Death toll now 53 from suspected migrant-smuggling operation, Gov. Abbott takes new action

The death toll from a suspected migrant-smuggling operation rose to 53 on Wednesday as Gov. Greg Abbott announced additional state steps intended to "detect, deter and apprehend" those crossing the southern border illegally.

Abbott said the Department of Public Safety will set up additional truck checkpoints and create two 20-member "strike teams" to apprehend immigrants in the Eagle Pass area to help discourage border crossing in the harsh terrain and brutal summer heat.

Noting the rising death toll in San Antonio, the Republican governor continued to criticize President Joe Biden, saying federal immigration policies were to blame for a dramatic increase in border crossings that put lives at risk.

"Texas is going to step up and do our part to try to make sure it doesn't happen again," Abbott said.

Initially, 46 victims were found Monday evening along a rural San Antonio road in a tractor-trailer that had no air conditioning and no water. Sixteen other 16 occupants were taken to area hospitals, including four children, before the death toll rose to 51 on Tuesday afternoon.

According to a Wednesday morning report from the Bexar County medical examiner's office, it had taken custody of 53 bodies from the truck — 40 men and 13 women — as work continued on identifying the victims.

"Potential identifications" had been made of 37 victims, the office said, and 11 truck occupants remained hospitalized Wednesday afternoon, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.

Watch: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott talks border security after migrants found dead in San Antonio

No additional details were provided.

Medical examiner's offices from Travis and Dallas counties are expected to help with autopsies in the coming days to determine the individual causes of death.

The Bexar County office said it was working with the consulates of Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

‘Heartbroken’: At candlelight vigil, Texans mourn 51 dead migrants found in San Antonio

"We also ask for patience, as the large number of victims and the expectation that most or possibly all are citizens of foreign countries likely lead to a prolonged process," the medical examiner's office said in a statement.

4 men arrested, charged

Four men have been arrested in the incident, with two facing charges that could lead to life in prison or the death penalty, the U.S. attorney's office for the Western District of Texas said Wednesday.

Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, the suspected driver of the truck, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of alien smuggling resulting in death. He is originally from Brownsville but lives in Pasadena.

San Antonio police officers who responded to the incident found and detained Zamorano hiding in the brush, and surveillance footage provided by the Border Patrol showed the tractor trailer crossing through an immigration checkpoint, with the driver matching Zamorano's description and wearing the same clothing, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

Also charged one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death was Christian Martinez, 28, who was arrested Tuesday in Palestine, appeared in federal court in Tyler and will be brought to San Antonio for further proceedings.

According to court documents, a search warrant on Zamorano's cellphone showed a conversation between him and Martinez about the smuggling operation.

The charges against both men carry terms of life in prison or the death penalty.

On Wednesday, the U.S. attorney's office also released information on two additional arrests.

According to criminal complaints, a San Antonio address associated with the truck's registration plate led police to begin surveillance, where they saw a man leave in a pickup that they pulled over.

The driver, Juan Francisco D'Luna-Bilbao 48, of Mexico, told police that a handgun was in the pickup's center console and said he was in the country illegally after overstaying a visa, the complaint said.

A search warrant of the San Antonio house found additional weapons, and D'Luna-Bilbao and a second resident, Juan Claudio D'Luna-Mendez, 23, were charged with possession of a weapon by a person illegally in the United States, which carries up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, the complaints said.

Abbott: Concertina wire, truck checkpoints

Speaking at an afternoon news conference in Eagle Pass after a briefing on immigration at the state's southern border, Abbott announced several initiatives after noting the "heartbreaking" loss of life in the San Antonio truck.

The state, he said, will work with private property owners along the border to secure agreements to erect "concertina wire or fences or other types of barriers so we can prevent people from entering the United States and the state of Texas through that private property."

Abbott also said the DPS will immediately increase the number of truck checkpoints in Texas.

"They will begin targeting trucks like the one that was used where these people perished," he said.

In April, an Abbott order for additional truck inspections at international bridges led to more than a week of gridlock and long delays in moving merchandise. DPS Director Steve McCraw said this time, checkpoints will be added along "smuggling corridors" away from the border and will work to identify "clone" trucks that use faked registrations to appear legitimate.

Abbott also said National Guard troops will lay "additional miles of concertina, military-grade razor wire, along the Rio Grande" at high-traffic migration areas.

In a statement released a day earlier, Biden defended his policies and criticized "political grandstanding around the tragedy." He also said the deaths underscored the need to target the "criminal smuggling industry preying on migrants and leading to far too many innocent deaths."

Biden pointed to an anti-smuggling campaign, launched three weeks ago, that he expected to lead to more smuggling arrests, adding that more than 2,400 arrests had been made in the previous three months.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Death toll now 53 from suspected migrant-smuggling in San Antonio