Death is a constant risk for undocumented migrants entering Texas

More than four dozen migrants were found dead in an overheated tractor-trailer on an industrial road in south San Antonio on Monday. Many of them had been sprinkled with steak seasoning in a possible attempt by smugglers to ward off authorities, law enforcement officials said.

The sheer scale and disturbing details, including migrants who apparently tried to escape the suffocating triple-digit temperatures inside the truck by jumping to their deaths along several city blocks, were horrific.

Large numbers of fatalities along the most heavily trafficked northbound path from Mexico and Central America, for decades the route of those seeking the American dream, are not unusual or unprecedented. Still, the staggering amount Monday, more than any in recent memory, stunned law enforcement and migrant advocates alike.