South Texas lawmaker: Immigrants' mass graves are a crime
Mark Collette
4:32 PM, Jun 22, 2014
CORPUS CHRISTI - A South Texas lawmaker has asked the Department of Public Safety to secure a Brooks County cemetery as a crime scene after the discovery of mass graves of unidentified immigrants.
“There is no doubt that a crime has taken place, and we need to protect the site to prevent any evidence from being damaged, tampered with, or destroyed,” said Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, in a statement issued during the weekend. “Just as important, we need to send the message to the world that in our state, we do not stain the honor of loved ones who have passed away.”
The Texas Rangers plan to meet with local officials Monday to determine the proper course of action.
Canales’ request follows similar remarks by state Sen. Juan “Chuy” Hinojosa, D-McAllen, who called for a state investigation into the mass graves .
Researchers working on a project to identify immigrants who die entering the United States said they exhumed 52 graves in the Sacred Heart Burial Park in Falfurrias in early June.
They couldn’t immediately count how many people were buried because the remains were intermingled. They found instances of multiple people in one body bag, bones buried in trash bags, and bones buried in no container at all, said Lori Baker, an anthropologist at Baylor University.
Last year the researchers exhumed 110 bodies as part of the same project.
They expect to exhume remains from a third section of the cemetery in 2015. Grave markers and markings on body bags indicated the remains were placed there between 2005 and 2012.
County officials say that for as long as they can remember, the local funeral home, Funeraria del Angel Howard-Williams, was paid to handle burials of unidentified immigrants.
more:
http://www.caller.com/news/local-news/immigration/south-texas-lawmaker-immigrants-mass-graves-are-a-crime_36448034
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