The bodies of hundreds of undocumented immigrants who died (usually from exposure in the 100-degree-plus heat) while crossing the Texas-Mexico border over the last few years have been discovered in mass graves in a South Texas cemetery, with remains found in trash bags, shopping bags, body bags, or no containers at all, according to The Corpus Christi Caller Times [3]. The bodies are believed to have been buried by a local funeral home since 2005 in the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Brooks County. County officials said they paid the local funeral home $450 per body to handle the bodies (after officials discovered them in brush country) and County Judge Raul Ramirez said that was the practice for at least 16 years. "To me it’s just as shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it’s just as disrespectful," exclaimed one of the discoverers, and Democratic state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa called for the district’s attorney general to open a criminal investigation as "this is too serious of a wrongdoing."
The Corpus Christi Caller Times (CCCT) reports, [3]
unidentified migrants who died entering the United States were buried in mass graves in a South Texas cemetery, with remains found in trash bags, shopping bags, body bags, or no containers at all, researchers discovered.
[4]
“To me it’s just as shocking as the mass grave that you would picture in your head, and it’s just as disrespectful,” said Krista Latham, a forensic anthropologist at the University of Indianapolis.
Bodies that were not already skeletonized before burial were found in varying states of decomposition, Baker said.
The bodies are believed to have been buried by a local funeral home since 2005 in the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Brooks County.
It appears this was policy...
County officials said they paid the local funeral home, Funeraria del Angel Howard-Williams to handle the bodies after sheriff’s officials recovered them from the brush country.
County Judge Raul Ramirez said that was the practice for at least 16 years.
The funeral home currently charges $450 to handle each body, Brooks County Chief Deputy Benny Martinez said.
But the circumstances are horrific,
A kitchen garbage bag containing bones was tucked inside a gift bag emblazoned with a logo featuring the word “Dignity,”
[4]
In one burial, bones of three bodies were inside one body bag. In another instance, at least five people in body bags and smaller plastic bags were piled on top of each other, Baylor University anthropologist Lori Baker said.
Skulls were found in biohazard bags — like the red plastic bags in receptacles at doctors’ offices — placed between coffins.
A funeral home official declined to comment, instead referring questions to McDunn.
As CCCT concludes,
The mass graves are yet another sign of U.S. immigration systems and policies overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and of their difficulty coping with the humanitarian aspects of illegal migration. Since October, the nation has struggled to house and process record numbers of minors fleeing civil and political unrest in Central America, many traveling alone. Migrants from Central America travel north along freight train lines in Mexico, leading to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and on to Brooks County.
