‘A backlog of bodies’: why this is the deadliest year for the US-Mexico border

Migrants rest after crossing the Rio Grande River in Eagle Pass, Texas. Photograph: Chandan Khanna/AFP/Getty Images

Along the US-Mexico border, overwhelmed mortuaries in Eagle Pass, Texas, have been forced to stockpile a “backlog of bodies” in a city-owned refrigerated truck.

The local government bought but never used the makeshift morgue amid the Covid-19 pandemic, when such desperate sights were not unheard of in various parts of the US, including Texas.