At least 10 people died after a van carrying more than two dozen passengers believed to be migrants crashed on Wednesday in South Texas about 80 miles north of the Mexico border, the local authorities said.
Sgt. Nathan Brandley of the Texas Department of Public Safety said that at least 20 people were injured and that several were in critical conditions at nearby hospitals. The driver of the vehicle was among the 10 who were killed, he said.
The van was transporting 30 people when it crashed south of Encino, Sheriff Urbino Martinez of Brooks County said. The Texas Department of Public Safety said the one-vehicle crash occurred about 4 p.m. on northbound U.S. Highway 281, south of the Falfurrias U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint.
Sergeant Brandley said witnesses saw the van trying to make a right turn at an intersection before veering off the road and hitting a metal utility pole and a stop sign. Neither the Border Patrol nor the Department of Public Safety was in pursuit of the vehicle, he said.
The Department of Public Safety was working with the Mexican consulate and U.S. Border Patrol to identify the victims and their nationalities.
“It appears that they’re undocumented immigrants,” Sergeant Brandley said.
The crash came less than a week after Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas issued an executive order barring private transportation suppliers from providing ground transit to many migrants. His press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night.
The order “scared off” licensed drivers who transported migrants in the Rio Grande Valley, said Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, the founder and director of the Sidewalk School for Asylum Seekers.
Dylan Corbett, the founding director of the Hope Border Institute in El Paso, said he suspected that the people in the van had arranged their own transportation instead of relying on a humanitarian organization. That might be why they were packed so tightly in the vehicle.
“People who make the journey and choose this know they are putting their lives in danger,” he said, “but they don’t have many options.”
The journey has become especially dangerous during the coronavirus pandemic, when a public health rule enacted by President Donald J. Trump and upheld by President Biden allowed border agents to rapidly turn away most migrants at the southwestern border.
The number of people crossing into the country shows no signs of waning, and Mr. Corbett said the rule, known as Title 42, has forced migrants to take more risks when they enter the United States.
“What happened today, you can draw a direct line from that to our policy of deterrence,” he said.
There have been several major fatal crashes involving migrants this year.
In the Imperial Valley of California, 13 people packed into an S.U.V. traveling from Mexico died in early March when the vehicle collided with a tractor-trailer rig. Federal authorities in the state later charged a 47-year-old U.S. resident with arranging transportation for people entering the country illegally.
Less than two weeks after the California crash, eight people died in southwestern Texas when a pickup truck collided head-on with another pickup during a 50-mile police chase. A 24-year-old Texas man was charged a few weeks later with “transporting illegal aliens resulting in death.”
Edgar Sandoval contributed reporting.
