6 Bodies Found in a Boxcar in Texas, Officials Say
The New York Times • • nation
Key Points:
- Six people were found dead inside a boxcar in Laredo, Texas, on Sunday afternoon, with the circumstances of their deaths currently unknown and under investigation by local police.
- The discovery was made by a Union Pacific employee at a rail yard, and the identities of the deceased have not yet been determined.
- Laredo, a city on the U.S.-Mexico border, has seen similar incidents in the past where migrants died inside train cars or trucks due to extreme heat, with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees on the day of the discovery.
- Officials have not confirmed if the deceased were migrants attempting to cross into the U.S., but recent years have seen multiple deadly migrant smuggling cases involving transport in confined vehicles.
- Border crossings have declined in recent years, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting over 63,000 encounters at the border through March 2024, compared to more than 440,000 in all of 2023.