Texas Orders Mortuary Trailers for Border Amid COVID Migrant, Crises

The Texas Department of Health has ordered five Federal Emergency Management Agency mortuary trailers for the border region amid the migrant and COVID surge crises, according to an NBC News report Tuesday.

According to the report, the state ordered the trailers, to store an influx of dead bodies, on Aug. 4 as record numbers of illegal migrants try crossing the border as the COVID-19 delta variant surges throughout the nation.

"We are anticipating a need within the state of Texas for these trailers as COVID cases and hospitalizations continue to increase," Department of State Health Services spokesperson Doug Loveday said.

The state agency made the determination that the trailers may be needed after reviewing data relating to increasing deaths amid the third wave of the virus, the report said.

The trailers will be based in San Antonio and then sent to areas of the state where they are needed.

Bruce Davidson, a spokesperson for San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, was not aware of the request but told the news organization that it "makes sense," adding: "Deaths are starting to mount for sure."

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state has seen an increase in new COVID cases of 9% per 100,000 people in the last week, and an increase in deaths per 100,000 of 1.7, or 57% as of Aug. 13.

This as the state is also grappling with a new record of more than 212,000 illegal migrants coming across the border in July, the highest number in years.

In addition, the state is also bracing for an influx of refugees from the recent governmental fall in Afghanistan, which could bring more than 30,000 to the United States, according to the State Department.

In the border city of McAllen, Texas, an emergency shelter was set up to deal with more than 7,500 COVID-positive migrants that have come in since February, Fox News reported.

"Despite the City of McAllen and its community partners’ best efforts, the sheer number of immigrants being released into the city has become a crisis: a crisis the City of McAllen did not create and has proactively tried to avoid for seven years," the city said in a statement this month. 

According to, FEMA, three of the trailers are due to arrive on Friday and the other two, the next day.

FEMA and HHS continue to work closely with the state of Texas to provide needed resources," the spokesperson for the agency told NBC.

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