Eleven migrants have been hospitalized in Texas after law enforcement found dozens of people in a house near San Antonio amid an operation aimed at disrupting a smuggling operation.
The migrants were admitted with heat-related conditions, although none seem to have life-threatening conditions. 15 others were in the house, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, and seven people have been arrested accused of being involved in the smuggling operation.
The Associated Press reported that authorities found the migrants behind a false compartment. One of them said she is from Guatemala and paid $16,000 to be brought into the U.S.
The news comes two days after President Joe Biden announced a series of measures aimed at stemming the flow of migrants reaching the country, with heavy restrictions to asylum claims once arrivals reach a certain threshold.
The decision, in the making for months, will go into effect when the number of encounters between ports of entry reaches 2,500 per day.
The measures are set to be in effect until two weeks after a seven-day average shows daily encounters at 1,500 people per day or below. During this period, migrants who don't express fear of returning to their home countries will be immediately deported and could face punishments including a five-year ban from reentering the country. Those who do express fear will need to reach a higher threshold to be allowed in.
The measures considered are an attempt to ease the system's overwhelmed asylum requests, along with a new effort to speed up the cases of migrants already in America and another meant to quicken processing for migrants with criminal records or those who would otherwise be eventually deemed ineligible for asylum in the U.S.
San Antonio witnessed the U.S.' deadliest human smuggling episode in June 2022, when 53 migrants, including eight children, died after being trapped in a scorching truck that had been driven from the border city of Laredo.
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