Corpse of Migrant With 'No Feet’ Found Hanging From Tree Near U.S.-Mexico Border
Law enforcement officials in Texas discovered the remains of a migrant hanging from a tree with his feet missing near the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday.
Brooks County Sheriff Benny Martinez told Breitbart that they have never seen anything like it in their county. He noted that they regularly find deceased migrants, "but never anything like this."
Martinez said this is what their deputies and the Border Patrol agents have to deal with. Newsweek reported that the county sheriff noted that the body was naked with folded clothing next to him.
Authorities believe that the man was hung with his own shirt and that his skeletal body had been in the area for at least a week.
Investigators reported that both of the man's feet were removed, most likely by animals. According to The Sun, one foot was recovered at the scene as a search to locate the other was carried out Friday.
Authorities also found two identification cards belonging to a Mexican male. Martinez said the circumstances surrounding the migrant's death remain unknown.
READ NEXT: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis Wants Pres. Joe Biden to Stop Sending Illegal Immigrants to the State
Investigation of the Hanged Migrant
The sheriff noted that they are not sure if the migrant was hanged or if he did it to himself, adding that they will have to wait on a full autopsy to determine what really happened.
The Webb County Medical Examiner's Office in Laredo, Texas will conduct the complete autopsy.
Deputies had already brought the remains to the county morgue, where they will try to obtain fingerprints from the decomposed body.
Martinez said the investigation is currently being treated as a homicide. However, he noted that there are still too many variables to determine what actually transpired.
The sheriff noted that his deputies had already processed the death scenes of around 100 migrants in Brooks County this year alone.
He said the deputies had also processed a fatal crash were 10 migrants died and 20 more injured, apart from the 98 found on ranches.
For the entire year of 2020, only 34 migrants were found dead compared to the 118 migrant deaths recorded this year, representing around a 250 percent increase, the sheriff noted.
Martinez said: "This death, while an extreme situation, is yet another example of the tragic deaths occurring here."
Migrant Influx at the U.S.-Mexico Border
In March, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) noted that the U.S. is facing the biggest influx of migrants at its southwestern border in 20 years.
Attempted crossings were mostly people from Central America and Mexico, but DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said most single adults and families are being turned away.
Migrants are seeking a better life in the U.S. due to the ongoing poverty, corruption, and violence in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, Reuters reported.
Haitian migrants have recently been among the people seeking to gain asylum in the U.S. Many believe that they will have a better chance of getting into the U.S. and staying in the country after President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump.
READ MORE: Immigrant Children at Border Have High Chance of Staying in the U.S.
This article is owned by Latin Post
Written by: Mary Webber
WATCH: More Than 12,000 Migrants Remain In The U.S. - From NBC News