It’s “among the deadliest” of human-trafficking incidents ever on the southern border, and horrific to contemplate. Forty-six people died in an abandoned big-rig trailer that had no air conditioning while outside temperatures rose above 100°, and more than a dozen others have been hospitalized. Police have three people in custody, but it’s not clear whether that includes the driver that abandoned the truck:

The bodies of at least 46 people believed to be migrants who crossed into the United States from Mexico were found dead on Monday in and around a tractor-trailer that had been abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, state and city officials said.

At least 16 others, including children, were taken to local hospitals alive but suffering from heat exhaustion and apparent dehydration, city officials said during a news conference at the scene of what appeared to be one of the worst episodes of migrant death in the United States in recent years. …

The truck was discovered by a worker from a nearby business who “heard a cry for help and came out to investigate,” said Chief McManus, adding that the worker had found the doors of the trailer partially open and found a number of bodies inside.

Most of the bodies, which included men and women, were found inside of the truck at around 6 p.m., though at least one was outside of the vehicle. The fire chief, Charles Hood, said the people who were transported to hospitals were “hot to the touch” and appeared to be suffering from “heat stroke, heat exhaustion.” The truck, though designed to be refrigerated, had “no visible, working A/C unit,” he said.

It’s the latest and worst incident in an uncontrollable flood of migration in the border crisis that has gone on for the last 17 months. An angry and frustrated Gov. Greg Abbott lashed out at Joe Biden over the horrific situation, calling the incident part of the “deadly consequences” of Biden’s border policies and “refusal to enforce the law”:

At Least 42 People Found Dead Inside Truck Carrying Migrants In Texas.

These deaths are on Biden.

They are a result of his deadly open border policies.

They show the deadly consequences of his refusal to enforce the law. https://t.co/8KG3iAwlEk

— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 28, 2022

Abbott wasn’t the only Texan pointing fingers at Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “How many more people have to die,” Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News, “before Democrats give a damn?” Rep. Tony Gonzales in TX-23 pinned the blame squarely on Mayorkas, demanding his resignation when Joaquin Castro attempted to support him:

Today in San Antonio it was 102 degrees. Imagine being abandoned inside an 18-wheeler left to die – 42 people died today – will @AliMayorkas even mention their names?

— Tony Gonzales (@TonyGonzales4TX) June 28, 2022

Spoiler alert – @SecMayorkas is the one responsible. RESIGN https://t.co/kzlsvgrQ5b

— Tony Gonzales (@TonyGonzales4TX) June 28, 2022

This is not the first time that traffickers (sometimes called “coyotes”) have abandoned migrants and left them to die. This appears to be the largest such incident, at least as known thus far, but there have been others. It’s part of the pressure of migration demand, primarily from Central America, that creates the supply of victims to such coyotes, who have zero incentives to ensure that the people they traffic are safe and secure once they get across the border.

Even if this type of incident isn’t unprecedented, its scale certainly is — and so is the migration wave and the demand created by Biden’s incompetent handling of the border. That is why officials and citizens in Texas are angrily pointing their fingers back at a White House that spent much of its first year promising leniency and American hosting for those who cross the border as a change from the “remain in Mexico” policy and tough law enforcement from the Trump years. That set off a tsunami of illegal migration that has overwhelmed the Border Patrol, and which Biden has ignored except on rare occasions when cornered by media.

Abbott has tried to backstop the Border Patrol with state resources to plug those gaps. He has gotten no cooperation from the Biden administration in those efforts at all. Even if Abbott’s angry statement was a bit hyperbolic, and even that’s arguable, it’s certainly understandable given the circumstances.

The media and Biden can’t ignore 46 dead men and women abandoned in a charnel trailer outside of San Antonio. Can they? We’ll see, but the border crisis has been among the biggest stories that the national media likes to keep in darkness, lest Democrats’ control of government die in the midterms. This body count may change things in Washington and the media bubble for a few days, but don’t count on any more follow-up than we’ve seen for the past 17 months of this ongoing border disaster.