On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho San Antonio is a fast growing, fast moving community with something new happening every day.

That's why each week we go on the record with the news makers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the Reporters Roundtable to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on the.

So the plight of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis, but tonight we are dealing with a horrific human tragedy.

So I would urge you all to think compassionately and pray for the deceased the ailing the families and we hope that those responsible for putting these people in such humane conditions are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Welcome to On the Record this week.

I'm Randy Beamer.

Thank you for joining us.

We are in the middle of yet another horrific tragedy here in South Texas.

After your valley, the 19 children, two teachers dead in a mass shooting.

Well, now, this week, just dozens of immigrants from Mexico and Central America found in the back of a sweltering tractor trailer on San Antonio's South Side.

At last report, 53 people dead and more are still in San Antonio hospitals and four people have been arrested.

Now, local leaders here and the media have been at the forefront of this tragedy that is making news around the world.

And that is where we begin today.

And joining US forces, Rebecca Flores, Burke, county commissioner in Precinct One.

Thanks for coming in.

Thanks for having.

Me.

This is an incredibly tough story, no matter what.

You were out there at the scene on Tuesday.

Tell us about what you know right now in terms of, you know, what it was like there and and what you saw.

I mean, it was sad, right, to go to a scene of a crime in my own precinct, in my community and with my constituents.

It was obviously very heavy, sad feeling.

That's when the memorial had kind of start start to pop up with people bringing different crosses and things.

A lot of media kind of roaming around.

But I also went to before that first thing in the morning on Tuesday, went to visit the victims who were at our county hospital at us.

And tell us about that, because you met with two of the people that were in that truck.

I mean, it just took everything in me not to not to cry during the visits.

And then later we had a press conference and I was trying to make sure I didn't cry in the press conference, but but it was difficult.

So fortunately, they're both still alive.

I am asking for prayer for the adolescent male He is in critical condition and we still don't have information on him.

Don't know who he is, how old he is.

Unfortunately, no And yeah, that was that was just really sad to see because he's a teenage boy.

And so he's, you know, all of the victims there, someone's child, someone's brother, someone's sister and.

The 23 year old.

You talk to the woman.

Yeah.

So I was able to talk to her.

She had been intubated overnight, so her tube had just been taken out.

So she was able to speak a little.

She's from Guatemala.

And I asked her if she was traveling with anyone.

She said she was traveling with her brother and that she was trying to look for him, but she was weak.

And then she fainted and she didn't know if he fainted.

Unfortunately, we still don't have information on him.

And before I left, I just wanted to make sure that she knew while she was in our hospital she was in get the best possible care that she could.

And I asked her if there's anything I could do for her, if there was anything she needed and she said, I want to let my mom know that I'm OK.

So we got her information and we were able to communicate with the Guatemalan consulate because all the communication to the home countries have to go through their consulates.

And in terms of exactly what happened to the police here at the scene locally, we're in charge for a time that homeland security.

So in terms of what's going on with that, even though you're a local authority, you don't really know some of that.

Yeah.

The investigation.

No, that's at the federal level under homeland security.

You know, also, if you could get into your background, you have a different insight into this because you brought up homeless at times, but also you were a missionary in Mexico.

Yes.

I'm black and Mexican.

I have dual citizenship.

My mother's from Mexico.

My early childhood, we were homeless, but growing up after that, every summer, we went traveling around Mexico to do missionary work.

And so that really showed me that there was worse poverty in other countries.

So at an early age, I recognized that even though I was the poorest of the poor in America, there were people in other countries who are worse off than me that really showed me to be taught me to be grateful for the opportunities I had here, which is why I excelled academically.

I took a badge of all the opportunities, any kind of scholarships I could apply for.

And it's also the reason why I serve the way I serve, because it taught me to see Jesus Christ as a social justice advocate.

What do you want in terms of federal government aid?

State aid?

What do you want the county to do after this?

What would help this problem from your perspective?

The county is limited because this is a federal issue.

Obviously, immigration is a federal issue as far as the state level.

The governor has wasted a lot of money supposedly on border security, yet there are humanitarian issues that need to be addressed Everything is not political.

The victims who died, they are humans.

This is a humanitarian issue.

And you responded quite emotionally after or the governor tweeted not too long after this that these deaths are on Biden and his open border policies.

Yeah.

He's using this opportunity as another political game to point the finger and blame the president of another party instead of him himself looking in the mirror and recognize his own faults.

The county is actually reaching out now because there are so many people that are in terms of medical examiner's office.

Tell us about that and how stretched it is.

Yeah, our medical examiner's team, our county employees who work in that office, you know, huge applaud to them.

They have been under a lot of stress obviously, the last two years with the COVID victims.

A month ago, they received all the children, sadly, from the Valley shooting until to now to have this mass casualty.

And this is a different level of difficulty because victims are for different countries.

So on an administrative level, they have to coordinate with those consulates to try and help to work to identify the bodies.

And they're sending their own teams from the other countries to help.

Now, I am Judge Wolf, and I actually met with some of the consulates yesterday, and they have offered to send forensic scientists from their countries.

That's not needed.

Right now at this time for our medical examiner's office first.

At the county level, they're going to.

Analyze every question you're asked at the scene on Tuesday.

At that news conference.

What do you want people to do out there?

Hospital.

You know, at the scene, I believe there was a news conference in any way on Tuesday you said what you want people to do in terms of how they can help this whole issue.

Yeah, that that press conference was at us.

I think people need to get registered to vote The the turnout for voting, whether it's local elections or statewide, is shamefully low.

People need to get registered to vote.

And we need to vote for elected officials.

And we need to vote for governor.

Governor, who cares about people as human beings.

All right.

Well, thank you very, very much for joining us, Rebecca Clay Flores, Barrett, county commissioner of Precinct One.

Thank you.

A worker who works in one of the.

Buildings up here behind me.

Heard a cry for help.

Came out to.

Investigate.

Found a trailer with the doors partially open.

Open them up to take a look.

And found a number of.

Deceased individuals inside.

Joining us now to talk about the efforts to help the people there, survivors and maybe the family members of those who died in that tractor trailer.

Natalia Trotter, who's a lead attorney for RAICES, which is the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services Thank you very much for coming in.

First of all, you have tried to make sure that these people who are in the hospital get the representation that they need.

Where are you in the process?

Yes, definitely.

We've reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to let them know that we're ready to provide legal representation and to make sure that they understand that people have a right to an attorney and they won't move forward with any legal action without giving them their rights.

So we're just waiting for the victims to recover and for us to be able to have access to the hospitals, to be able to go in and speak with people and provide them that representation.

And it's not guaranteed that these people who have gone through what they have gone through when they get out of the hospital will stay in the U.S.. For a time.

That's correct.

We would have to assess why they came if they had harm in their home country, if they suffered as a victim of a crime in the United States and be able to see their legal avenues for relief.

And I'm talking about legal avenues as we are talking right now.

The Supreme Court made a decision today that will affect this, the Remain in Mexico policy, in effect since 2019.

They ruled the Biden administration can lift that there is another separate policy called Title 42.

That's an issue of explain to people the difference there and what we expect the Supreme Court decision to mean and when.

Yes, definitely so the both were a Trump era policies.

The remaining Mexico program stated that people who arrive at the US border seeking asylum will be returned to Mexico and will be have to go through their legal proceeding while living in Mexico.

Title 42 was a health a public health order that was supposed to be temporary, which was instituted as a reaction to COVID19 and basically closed the borders.

So for anyone arriving at the U.S. border, they were immediately returned to Mexico just to wait kind of indefinitely until this was lifted.

And now some people, it's interesting on both sides of this issue have been critical of President Biden.

We heard the governor say these deaths are on Biden because of his open border policies.

At the same time, there are critics on the left who say it's because of the tight restrictions at the border right now, that these kinds of things happening that is pushing people to these kinds of desperate measures.

What is your take on this?

Yes, I always find it ironic and strange when people talk about Biden's open border policy because Biden has actually continued the Trump era policies that have limited migration to the United States.

So the border is just as much closed now as it was a few years ago.

So there's definitely not an open border policy.

I tend to agree with with the idea that the more that you limit legal migration, the more you'll see people who are in desperate situations in situations of violence being forced to make these decisions to enter the United States in a way that puts their lives in danger.

What do you expect this decision and maybe the end of Title 42, whatever that comes to do to the numbers of people and to, you know, incidents like this, are we going to see fewer of those?

What what do you expect?

That's our hope as people are able to exercise their legal right to seek asylum.

I think also people don't understand that under U.S. law and international law, people have a legal right to come to the U.S. border and state that they're afraid to return to their home country and be legally processed.

And so we'll see people who have been waiting for months and years in very dangerous situations finally be able to come to the U.S. border and exercise that legal right under U.S. and international law.

And now opponents will say that they are going to be automatically allowed to leave and go into the interior of the US and disappear.

What are the numbers and percentages of people who don't show up for hearings and things like that?

Yes, I actually don't have the specific numbers or percentages.

It's obviously much higher for people who have access to attorneys.

And so that's something that raises pushes a lot for people to be able to have their legal rights and be able to have legal access because oftentimes the immigration system is very confusing.

So sometimes people want to go to their immigration courts, but they don't know when it is their immigration documents.

That they're given when they enter the border, don't have a specific date and time.

And so people are left trying to exercise their legal process, but not knowing exactly how to do it.

And now the city of San Antonio and others here, like your groups, had geared up for the end of title 42 earlier remain in Mexico policy earlier.

We are seeing an increase already in terms of legal immigrants in the thousands coming through and getting help here.

What is it going to do to the overwhelmed resources right now as we see more people coming through legally?

Yeah, so immigration always ebbs and flows.

There's always a cycle of migration depending on push factors from countries such as violence, wars and climate change.

And so we haven't seen increases in the past.

And legal service providers have always been able to react to those increases, to react to those changes.

And so we're ready to to be able to do that again and be able to continue to provide those services that people need as they come through The.

Last quick question has been over kind of overlooked in the media.

There was a migrant caravan that had formed along the Guatemalan Mexico border, I believe in and was starting to go through Mexico and then was stopped in Coahuila on a policy that where they had basically agreed with authorities in the US to to kind of stop those.

What do you expect in terms of migrant caravans?

Because that has been such a flare point, you know, in terms of border policy, do you expect those two to resume, to continue?

Well, I think the migrant caravans are a reaction to how dangerous situation travel situations are in Mexico.

So people who travel alone are often assaulted, kidnaped, they suffer horrific violence in Mexico.

And so we caravans are simply created for protection of migrants.

So I think we'll see that continue.

So as long as the situation in Mexico is so dangerous for people who are traveling through All right.

Well, thank you very much for talking with us again.

Natalia Trotter, lead attorney for RAICES, officers here in San Antonio.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

Thank you so much.

The patients that we saw were hot to the touch, was suffering from exhaustion.

No signs of water in the vehicle.

It was a refrigerated tractor trailer, but there was no visible working AC unit on that rig.

And joining us now to talk about this from a reporter's perspective on Reporters Roundtable is Joy Palacios, who is the local government reporter for Texas Public Radio.

Thank you for coming in.

This comes on the heels of the tragedy in Uvalde, which takes a toll on anyone who's involved in that, whether it's a first responder teachers, family members, community members, but also reporters.

Tell us about well, first of all, what was it like when you got out to the scene there on the southwest side?

You know, what we see in a lot like any other scene like this, there were reporters already gathered and TV cameras, and then there were onlookers, people that had started seeing the news and going out there.

Now, what we immediately saw in the distance was you could see the trailer.

It was there, it was open.

It was surrounded by police vehicles.

At one point, there was a drone flying overhead some of the first responders or their specific police had come and asked, you know, whoever was flying the drone to please take it down.

And these scenes, you know, there's there's a from from being so far back, there's there's this calm chaos because at the time we didn't know the toll.

You know, the we heard from from sources that it could have been as many as 20, maybe 50.

And then it was confirmed the exact time.

But when chief who had come out and said that 46 people were killed, it just it feels like a punch in the gut because specifically we had seen, you know, 21 people killed and you've already and there hasn't really been enough time for our community for the for the people who are covering this, for the first responders for even the medical examiner's office to be able to recover and process from that.

And it does affect reporters like anyone else for people down there especially after you've validated crying, having trouble getting past the human tragedy of it for yourself, what was it like going out there?

You've covered you valley you went to this one, right, the day of the scene.

The night of the scene.

You know, for for for me and I feel like for for other reporters is that there doesn't really feel like there's enough downtime to catch up.

You know, the last two years have been hell for a lot of the people covering this.

And it's it's sometimes you just want to try to take a moment to catch up and catch your breath.

And just as you know, there was a sense of the regular day to day flow coming back from you've already I mean, you know, there's you're never really going to recover from a school shooting like that.

But then as soon as you're starting to feel, you get back into a groove.

46 are now well, 53 people are dead from a trailer incident.

So there's a toll on on on newsrooms where even our station at TPR you know there was shortly after you've already the station brought in a licensed counselor to come and talk to us.

So there is a you know this in our newsroom there's definitely a feeling of if you are overwhelmed, take some time, take some time.

And that's more common in newsrooms.

But at the same time you're still trying to find out information.

You have to be somewhat intrusive.

You also are explaining it in your case to the world.

You've done interviews across the world, BBC.

What what is that like when you have to explain to people who are wondering how can this happen?

And you say, well, this isn't a one off.

It is in terms of numbers, but there are trailers found like this with people that come in.

We're a crossroads, right?

So I mean, in the 12 or 15 hours after the incident, I had done an interview with the BBC Identity Review with a radio station in London with with NPR and then with ABC News and Australia.

And you have to try to explain exactly, you know, what what has been seen.

You're the context.

I remember having to tell the Australian station that, you know, it was 100 degrees outside but I had to tell them what it's like in Celsius.

And so you have to set the context of, of, of, you know, for instance it just being so hot that these people were in there dying from heat.

Just imagine it's when it's a hundred degrees outside.

But these, these poor people were inside this unventilated heated box with, you know, we don't know the full situation but you know, they weren't able to get out.

And so it's it sometimes it takes a toll in trying to explain that and also explaining how this, as you mentioned, is not an uncommon occurrence or not a rare occurrence because of the human smuggling route that we're on.

And putting a face on this, it's a little different than in your valley because it's an international story.

And we're learning some from news media in Mexico and Guatemala and Honduras.

There was an instance where on I believe it was yesterday the Mexican government had a press conference and we were hearing more from them than we had heard from our own government here.

And so there's this this sort of chaos when you have these different and it's an organized chaos, if you can call it that, when you have these different countries coming in and trying to explain you know, here's what we know.

Here's what we know about our citizens.

You know, at last that I had heard about, 37 people had been identified and their nationalities range from Mexico and that's what the Mala, El Salvador.

And those are the same countries that we hear all the time in these incidences.

And so, you know, there's there's a pattern and you just want something to come in to be done because we keep seeing this over and over again.

Well, thank you very much.

I know it's tough been there different stories like this.

Fortunately, I haven't had to go out on these two, but, you know, take care of yourself and hopefully we'll have you on next time for something more positive.

Joy Palacios, Texas Public Radio, local government reporter.

Thanks and thank you for joining us for this edition of On the Record.

You can see this show again or previous shows as well as the podcast at Klrn.org.

And we'll see you next.

On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele Dufilho