The worst accident involving death and human trafficking happened last month along the U.S.-Mexican border. A tractor-trailer was discovered outside San Antonio loaded with dead bodies and only a few survivors. The tractor-trailer had been abandoned, the surviving victims left to roast in the over 100-degree temperature with no air-conditioning or water.

Two Mexican nationals were arrested for the deaths of those human beings in the back of that tractor-trailers. They were in the United States on expired visas. The investigation is making it clear that this is all part of human smuggling (trafficking) that is happening along the southern border. Cartels are in control of the border, not the Biden administration.

There were some survivors from the abandoned tractor-trailer. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) is seeking protection for those survivors, currently hospitalized or recently released. By protection, Castro means to release them from DHS custody and let them go free. He asks DHS Secretary Mayorkas to neither deport them nor place them in detention centers. Castro and twenty other lawmakers wrote a letter to Mayorkas urging him to “exercise prosecutorial discretion.”

None of those found alive were able to climb out of the truck without assistance, and exposure to such extreme heat can cause long-term health issues, the lawmakers wrote.

“As the remaining survivors focus on their recovery at San Antonio hospitals, they should not be worried about their future in the United States,” they wrote.

They urged Mayorkas to exercise prosecutorial discretion to keep those survivors from being deported or sent to a detention facility.

They also asked him to expedite survivors’ applications for humanitarian-based visas and to provide humanitarian parole so that families of the victims can visit survivors and collect the bodies of those who died.

“It is only right that our government provides an avenue for the family members that can and want to come to the United States to find, locate, bury, or bring home their loved ones,” they wrote.

In the aftermath of the discovery of the horrific human tragedy, Governor Abbott ordered that all trucks from Mexico be inspected by state police. The abandoned tractor-trailer had not been inspected. Abbott blamed a lack of manpower. He pointed to the Biden border crisis as the reason for the deaths of those 50 people. Biden shot back and accused Abbott of grandstanding. Interestingly, he didn’t bother denying his self-made border crisis.

The letter from the lawmakers to Mayorkas focused on taking care of the illegal migrants being smuggled into Texas. Castro has been critical of Abbott in the past. Their letter ended with a promise to work with DHS on comprehensive immigration reform.

“This tragedy is a symptom of a broken immigration system, and while we will continue to work with you and our colleagues in Congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform, we hope that you will work tirelessly with us to ensure the protection and security of the survivors and their families,” they wrote.

When a Democrat references comprehensive immigration reform, they mean blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants already in the United States and for a pathway to citizenship for all, too. The problem is with Biden’s border crisis, so many illegal migrants have crossed the border and are not being tracked that it is impossible to know how many are in the country. They have been flown or driven to states away from the southern border in order to ease the overcrowding there.

The letter essentially asks that the victims of the tractor-trailer operation be released with no accountability. It’s catch and release. As long as migrants are allowed to illegally enter the country without consequences, they will continue to come. Their first act is to break U.S. law. They have been coached to ask for asylum, though few really qualify for it under current immigration law. They do not go through legal channels and enter in a port of entry. Hundreds of thousands are classified as got aways – they run from law enforcement when they cross the border outside of a port of entry.

Immigrants going through the standard legal process really get the short end of the stick when those who don’t are allowed to remain as though they did. The system does need some reform. But, first, the southern border has to be closed and secured. Laws already on the books have to be enforced. Anything short of that is a waste of time.