By using this site, you agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Accept

News Junction

Notification Show More
Font ResizerAa
  • Home
  • World News
    World NewsShow More
    The US Treasury just shocked Americans with a 8B surplus — its 2nd biggest monthly surplus in history
    The US Treasury just shocked Americans with a $258B surplus — its 2nd biggest monthly surplus in history
    May 18, 2025
    Fire in India’s Hyderabad kills at least 17 people
    Fire in India’s Hyderabad kills at least 17 people
    May 18, 2025
    world leaders gather as Leo to receive fisherman’s ring
    world leaders gather as Leo to receive fisherman’s ring
    May 18, 2025
    Austria wins Eurovision, as protesters ‘throw paint’ during Israel’s performance | Ents & Arts News
    Austria wins Eurovision, as protesters ‘throw paint’ during Israel’s performance | Ents & Arts News
    May 18, 2025
    How to achieve a lasting ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine? | Russia-Ukraine war
    How to achieve a lasting ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine? | Russia-Ukraine war
    May 18, 2025
  • Business
    BusinessShow More
    Ukraine blows up bridges to consolidate its positions in Russia
    Ukraine blows up bridges to consolidate its positions in Russia
    August 18, 2024
    Commentary: AI phones from Google and Apple will erode trust in everything
    Commentary: AI phones from Google and Apple will erode trust in everything
    August 18, 2024
    The most famous Indian Dishes – Insights Success
    The most famous Indian Dishes – Insights Success
    August 18, 2024
    Life on the road as a female long rides cyclist
    Life on the road as a female long rides cyclist
    August 18, 2024
    UK inflation rises to 2.2%
    UK inflation rises to 2.2%
    August 18, 2024
  • Cryptocurrency
    CryptocurrencyShow More
    ‘Bitcoin Standard’ author backs funding dev to make spamming Bitcoin costly
    ‘Bitcoin Standard’ author backs funding dev to make spamming Bitcoin costly
    May 18, 2025
    Retired artist loses M in crypto to Coinbase impersonator
    Retired artist loses $2M in crypto to Coinbase impersonator
    May 18, 2025
    BPEP gains steam as Eric Trump eyes cheap BTC to rival Saylor
    BPEP gains steam as Eric Trump eyes cheap BTC to rival Saylor
    May 18, 2025
    Top crypto to buy as Saudi Central Bank reveals exposure to MSTR
    Top crypto to buy as Saudi Central Bank reveals exposure to MSTR
    May 18, 2025
    ICP & SUI Rally Ignites Crypto Market – But Unstaked’s AI Tech Could Dwarf Both in 2025
    ICP & SUI Rally Ignites Crypto Market – But Unstaked’s AI Tech Could Dwarf Both in 2025
    May 18, 2025
  • Technology
    TechnologyShow More
    How to Improve Your Spotify Recommendations
    How to Improve Your Spotify Recommendations
    August 18, 2024
    X says it’s closing operations in Brazil
    X says it’s closing operations in Brazil
    August 18, 2024
    Supermoon set to rise: Top tips for amateur photographers | Science & Tech News
    Supermoon set to rise: Top tips for amateur photographers | Science & Tech News
    August 18, 2024
    Scientists Want to See Videos of Your Cat for a New Study
    Scientists Want to See Videos of Your Cat for a New Study
    August 18, 2024
    OpenAI’s new voice mode let me talk with my phone, not to it
    OpenAI’s new voice mode let me talk with my phone, not to it
    August 18, 2024
  • Entertainment
  • Sports News
  • People
  • Trend
Reading: Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared
Share
Font ResizerAa

News Junction

  • World News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Trend
  • Entertainment
Search
  • Recent Headlines in Entertainment, World News, and Cryptocurrency – NewsJunction
  • World News
  • Business
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Sports News
  • People
  • Trend
Have an existing account? Sign In
Follow US
News Junction > Blog > World News > Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared
Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared
World News

Barrels of drinking water for migrants walking through Texas have disappeared

Published August 12, 2023
Share
8 Min Read
SHARE

HEBBRONVILLE, Texas (AP) — As one of the worst heat waves on record set in across much of the southern United States this summer, authorities and activists in South Texas found themselves embroiled in a mystery in this arid region near the border with Mexico.

Barrels of life-saving water that a human rights group had strategically placed for wayward migrants traveling on foot had vanished.

Usually, they are hard to miss. Labeled with the word “AGUA” painted in white, capital letters and standing about waist-high, the 55-gallon (208-liter), blue drums stand out against the scrub and grass, turned from green to a sundried brown.

The stakes of solving this mystery are high.

Summer temperatures can climb to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 degrees Celsius) in Texas’ sparsely populated Jim Hogg County, with its vast, inhospitable ranchlands. Migrants — and sometimes human smugglers — take a route through this county to try to circumvent a Border Patrol checkpoint on a busier highway about 30 miles (48 kilometers) to the east. More than 60 miles (96 kilometers) from the U.S.-Mexico border, it can take several days to walk there for migrants who may have already spent weeks crossing mountains and desert and avoiding cartel violence.

“We don’t have the luxury of losing time in what we do,” said Ruben Garza’s, an investigator with the Jim Hogg Sheriff’s Office. Tears streamed down his face as he recalled helping locate a missing migrant man who became overheated in the brush, called for help but died just moments after his rescue.

Exact counts of those who die are difficult to determine because deaths often go unreported. The U.N. International Organization for Migration estimates almost 3,000 migrants have died crossing from Mexico to the U.S. by drowning in Rio Grande, or because of lack of shelter, food or water.

Humanitarian groups started placing water for migrants in spots on the U.S. side of the border with Mexico in the 1990s after authorities began finding bodies of those who succumbed to the harsh conditions.

John Meza volunteers with the South Texas Human Rights Center in Jim Hogg County, where the population of about 5,000 people is spread over 1,100 square miles (2,850 square kilometers) — larger than the state of Rhode Island. He restocks the stations with gallon jugs of water, trims away overgrown grass, and ensures the GPS coordinates are still visible on the underside of the barrel lids.

On one of his rounds in July, Meza said, 12 of the 21 stations he maintains were no longer there.

The Associated Press compared images captured by Google Maps over the last two years and confirmed that some barrels that were once there were gone.

But to where?

Wildfires are common in this part of Texas, where dry grass quickly becomes fuel. Road construction crews frequently push or move aside obstructions for their work. But as Garza, the sheriff’s investigator, walked along a path designated by GPS coordinates for the barrels, there were no signs of melted, blue plastic. And nothing indicated the heavy barrels had been moved. Though volunteers fill them only partway, they can weigh up to about 85 pounds (38 kilograms).

The investigator drove up and down the main highway where many of the water stations were installed near private property fence lines making note of the circumstances of each missing barrel.

Empty water bottles sat on the ground near the round impression left behind by the heavy barrel in one site. At another, the grass was trimmed, and fresh earth was laid bare to create buffers against fire.

Garza suspected state road crews moved three barrels that had been along an unpaved road, but the Texas Department of Transportation denied it. The investigator also noted a “tremendous amount” of wildfires could be to blame. He’s also speaking with area ranchers in hopes of showing the disappearances may be a simple misunderstanding, not a crime.

“They probably have a logical explanation,” he said, with no apparent lead.

But in other states along the southern border, missing water stations have been ascribed to spiteful intentions.

The group No More Deaths in 2018 released video of Border Patrol agents kicking over and pouring water out of gallon jugs left for people in the desert.

No More Deaths said that from 2012 to 2015, it found more than 3,586 gallon jugs of water that had been destroyed in an 800-square-mile (2,072-square-kilometer) desert area in southern Arizona.

Laura Hunter and her husband, John, started putting out water along popular smuggling routes in Southern California in the 1990s. They note their effort is not affiliated with political or religious groups, but that their work is often attacked.

“Every single year, we have vandalism, of course, you know, people that don’t agree with what we do,” Laura Hunter said.

The Hunters met with Eddie Canales, the executive director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, about 15 years ago and provided the design for the low-cost water stations. In light of the news, they offered some advice.

“I would replace them all with some used barrels, just replace them all,” John Hunter said. “And then I would put a couple of cameras on those and get the guy’s license plates and his face.”

Canales said he plans to work with volunteers to replace the missing stations in the coming days.

The number of migrants crossing through South Texas and subsequent deaths decreased this year after President Joe Biden’s administration instituted new border polices. A medical examiner’s office who covers eleven counties including Jim Hogg has received the bodies of 85 migrants who died this year. It represents less than half the number sent to that office in 2022. Most of the migrants who died this year suffered fatal heat strokes.

But that could change, especially if legal challenges to the Biden administration’s policies are successful.

For now, the mystery about the barrels’ disappearance remains unsolved. But Meza, the volunteer who restocks the barrels in Jim Hogg County, plans to continue his work

“If that was intentional, that’s a pretty malicious thing. You know what I mean?” Meza asked. “You’re saying, ‘Let these people die because I don’t want to give them access to water.’”

___

Associated Press writer Anita Snow in Phoenix contributed to this report.

#Barrels #drinking #water #migrants #walking #Texas #disappeared

TAGGED:BarrelsdisappeareddrinkingmigrantsTexaswalkingWater
Share This Article
Facebook Twitter Pinterest Whatsapp Whatsapp LinkedIn Email Copy Link Print
Share
What do you think?
Love0
Sad0
Happy0
Sleepy0
Angry0
Dead0
Wink0
Previous Article Zimbabwe heads to the polls … Zimbabwe heads to the polls …
Next Article Automated Mixologist Cocktail Makers : cocktail maker Automated Mixologist Cocktail Makers : cocktail maker
- Advertisement -

Latest Post

‘Bitcoin Standard’ author backs funding dev to make spamming Bitcoin costly
‘Bitcoin Standard’ author backs funding dev to make spamming Bitcoin costly
Cryptocurrency
Retired artist loses M in crypto to Coinbase impersonator
Retired artist loses $2M in crypto to Coinbase impersonator
Cryptocurrency
The US Treasury just shocked Americans with a 8B surplus — its 2nd biggest monthly surplus in history
The US Treasury just shocked Americans with a $258B surplus — its 2nd biggest monthly surplus in history
World News
BPEP gains steam as Eric Trump eyes cheap BTC to rival Saylor
BPEP gains steam as Eric Trump eyes cheap BTC to rival Saylor
Cryptocurrency
Top crypto to buy as Saudi Central Bank reveals exposure to MSTR
Top crypto to buy as Saudi Central Bank reveals exposure to MSTR
Cryptocurrency
Fire in India’s Hyderabad kills at least 17 people
Fire in India’s Hyderabad kills at least 17 people
World News
- Advertisement -

You Might Also Like

Commentary: Muhammad Yunus faces the most extraordinary test – as Bangladesh’s saviour
World News

Commentary: Muhammad Yunus faces the most extraordinary test – as Bangladesh’s saviour

August 9, 2024
Woman Behind Viral ‘Not Real’ Airplane Outburst Has Been Identified, Is Real
World News

Woman Behind Viral ‘Not Real’ Airplane Outburst Has Been Identified, Is Real

August 8, 2023
Kari Lake wants to do WHAT in response to Trump’s indictment?
World News

Kari Lake wants to do WHAT in response to Trump’s indictment?

August 4, 2023
SoftBank is in talks to buy Vision Fund’s 25% stake in Arm, sources say
World News

SoftBank is in talks to buy Vision Fund’s 25% stake in Arm, sources say

August 14, 2023

About Us

NEWS JUNCTION (NewsJunction.xyz) Your trusted destination for global news. Stay informed with our timely and accurate reporting on diverse topics, including politics, technology, science, entertainment, sports, and more. Count on us for unbiased and reliable updates at your fingertips.

Quick Link

  • About
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Contact

Top Categories

  • World News
  • Business
  • Technology
  • Entertainment
  • Cryptocurrency
  • Sports News
  • Trend
  • People

Subscribe

Subscribe to our newsletter to get our newest articles instantly!

    © 2023 News Junction.
    • Blog
    • Advertise
    • Contact
    Welcome Back!

    Sign in to your account

    Username or Email Address
    Password

    Lost your password?