Mass graves of migrants found in Texas cemetery

A state senator is calling for a criminal investigation into mass graves found in a South Texas cemetery, where remains of unidentified migrants were found by researchers in trash bags, shopping bags, body bags or no containers at all...

"This is too serious of a wrongdoing," Hinojosa said. "I'm appalled at the number of bodies just left in body bags and, in many instances, more than one body in one bag. That's not right."

The burial practices were discovered by anthropologists working to identify migrants who died entering the United States through South Texas. Hundreds have died in Brooks County alone in the last several years as they set out on foot across tough terrain and brutal heat, trying to evade the Border Patrol.

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The task was hard enough, even without complications: Forensic anthropologists were trying to identify the remains of migrants who perished in remote South Texas while trying to cross from Mexico into the U.S. Many of those remains ended up in a cemetery in Falfurrias, and when the volunteers made 52 exhumations, they expected to find 52 corpses.

Instead, as the Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports, they found many more — but they can't say for sure given the state of burial. They discovered remains jammed into trash bags, shopping bags, and body bags; bones from multiple bodies inside the same bags; and some remains without any containers whatsoever. In short, it looked more like a dump than a cemetery, they say..

The remains are in a Brooks County cemetery, and the county pays the Funeraria del Angel Howard-Williams funeral home $450 per body to handle burials.

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Jacie Estes said:

What has happened to compassion and humanity? The remains of humans are treated as if they are garbage; why is there no concern for life, isn't it sacred?

Children are treated like animals, as well.

This is disgraceful, children should not be in cages. Their origin of birth should not determine how we treat them.

If this was a familial situation, the parents would be arrested for abuse!

http://www.kpho.com/slideshow?widgetid=117700

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SStarr33 said:

I agree. We need to transport them to a government building in their country of origin

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Jacie Estes said:

So, treating them like animals here is okay? smh

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The Texas Rangers have joined an investigation with Brooks County officials who are looking into why dozens of illegal immigrants buried in unmarked graves in a Falfurrias cemetery...

County officials say that's not the burial they paid for. They met Wednesday morning in executive session. Afterwards, Commissioner Gloria Garza echoed what other commissioners expressed, saying "Brooks County paid for this service to provide a decent and respectful burial for these migrants. What happened, we don't know."

The funeral home they paid has had a change in ownership, making the investigation more complicated.

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