By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
The bodies of immigrants who die as they attempt to cross into the United States are piling up, and the Webb County Medical Examiners’ Office in Laredo has asked border counties to stop sending them.
The medical examiner’s request was discussed Tuesday during the regular term meeting of Val Verde County Commissioners Court during a standing agenda item on immigrants.
“Without going into too much detail, we received a letter from our medical examiner last week that they – and there’s really not a nice way to put it – that immigrants who have passed, who are dead, to hold off and not send them to (their office) anymore because they have over 200-odd in freezers already, so she (the medical examiner) asked if we can go ahead and do something else with them for a little bit until we send them,” Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr. told the court.
“This is only immigrants . . . Ours, we can continue to send them,” the county judge added.
He said as of Tuesday, the county does not have any immigrant bodies it is holding for transport to the medical examiner’s office.
“We don’t have near the problem that Kinney and Maverick (counties) have. One of the consuls came and visited with us last week, and I think Maverick, according to them, had buried 13 immigrants because they didn’t know what to do with them,” Owens said.
“They’re trying to identify them. We did visit with the consuls of Mexico and Guatemala (which have consulates in Del Rio), and we asked that as soon as we get somebody, we would try to get them identified, send whatever we have to them as soon as possible to try and get that individual identified,” Owens said.
“Are the autopsies being paid for by us?” County Commissioner Pct. 3 Beau Nettleton asked.
“Yes,” Owens replied.
“Are we being reimbursed?” Nettleton asked.
“We’ll keep track of that, and if we can get it out of Operation Lone Star, we will look into that, yes, sir,” Owens replied.
Val Verde County Sheriff Joe Frank Martinez also addressed the court about the issue.
“With relation to autopsies and travel and storage, I met with Sen. John Cornyn’s office on Sunday. There’s a grant out there that we’re going to go after, that’ll pay for anything dealing with immigrants, for the human remains, the transportation, the burial, all that will be reimbursed to the county. So I have somebody looking into that, getting some information on that, hopefully for the next commissioners court,” Martinez said.
“Do you have any idea what we’ve spent up to this point?” Nettleton asked.
“No, sir,” the sheriff replied.
“Right now, on immigrants alone, this year we’ve had 19 (deaths), for 2022, and for 2021, I want to say we had 32. Out of that, the 2021 numbers, two remain John Does. This year, I believe it’s eight,” Martinez said.
“And that’s being paid by the local taxpayers?” Nettleton asked.
“Yes, sir, at this time. So we’re looking into that grant, after meeting with the senator’s office on Sunday, and I will get you that information,” Martinez said.
The court took no action following the presentation by Owens and the sheriff.
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