In Texas, at least 46 migrants were found dead inside a sweltering tractor-trailer that was left abandoned on a remote road in San Antonio Monday. Sixteen survivors were hospitalized, including four children, to be treated for heat stroke and exhaustion as the region faces a scorching heat wave. Local authorities said a city worker heard a cry for help from inside the truck Monday afternoon and found a body on the ground outside the trailer’s partially opened gate. This is San Antonio’s Fire Chief Charles Hood.

Charles Hood: “The patients that we saw were hot to the touch. They were suffering from heat stroke, heat 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.”

This is among the deadliest tragedies in recent decades of people attempting to cross into the U.S. and comes as the Biden administration continues to enforce harsh border policies blocking most people from safely entering through ports of entry at the U.S.-Mexico border. Thousands are forced to take on extremely dangerous routes and rely on smugglers.