The number of deceased undocumented immigrants has considerably burdened local funeral homes in Eagle Pass, Texas—once the busiest crossing point during the Biden administration. Consequently, Maverick County officials resorted to using temporary morgues to manage the situation. This week marked the burial of the last undocumented immigrant who had been stored in an emergency morgue at a local cemetery.
In an emotional social media post, Maverick County Judge Ramsey Cantu reflected on the interment of these individuals, many of whom had perished due to circumstances surrounding the open border policy. Cantu was joined by law enforcement, national workers, and local residents to pay respects to those who had no surviving family.
In Texas, county judges function as chief executives at the county level.
Most of those kept in temporary morgues died attempting to cross the Rio Grande, while others perished from dehydration on extensive private farms nearby. Unfortunately, many of the deceased remained unidentified, with some cases lingering for over a year, as noted by Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerbert in discussions with Breitbart Texas regarding this ongoing issue.
Judge Cantu explained that one of the county’s key responsibilities is to ensure burial for these vulnerable individuals, trying to identify immigrants through various methods. In a recent post, he shared the story of Ansonella Nazareth, a five-year-old Colombian girl whose identification was made possible by Dr. Kate Spradley, who leads operational ID efforts at Texas State University. Ansonella and 13 others were laid to rest this week through the efforts of Maverick County officials.
Although Ansonella’s mother could not attend the funeral after being informed of her daughter’s identification, Cantu mentioned they managed to communicate with her in Honduras. Like over 500,000 unaccompanied minors who crossed the border during Biden’s tenure, Ansonella might have been left at the border while her family sought entry into the United States.
Cantu was present at Ansonella’s poignant funeral at Maverick County Cemetery, which also serves as the final resting place for other undocumented immigrants who died in the area. As previously reported by Breitbart Texas in 2023, the United Nations Immigration Agency has labeled the US-Mexico border as the deadliest in the world.
The death toll in Eagle Pass surged quickly, prompting Maverick County to use temporary storage for the deceased after the local funeral home reached its limits and could no longer accommodate the growing number of fatalities.
