美国国家公共电台 NPR He Crossed The Border In A Packed, Unventilated Trailer And Survived

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

An update now - last month, an unventilated tractor trailer smuggling¹ migrants across the border in San Antonio became a death trap. Ten people died from the heat. Late yesterday, a federal grand jury indicted² the driver, James Bradley Jr. - indicted him on five counts, including transportation of undocumented aliens for financial gain resulting in death. Two of the migrants remain hospitalized. NPR's John Burnett has the story of one young man who barely survived.

JOHN BURNETT, BYLINE³: Here's the hospital scene. Sixteen-year-old Brandon Martinez is lying comatose⁴ in the ICU. Wet washcloths cover his bare skin in an attempt to cool off his body that almost cooked to death. The immigrants were trying to breathe in the unventilated trailer on a blistering⁵ summer day. His father, Jose de Jesus Martinez, a Colorado landscaper who's in the country illegally, is at his bedside weeping and stroking his son. What happens next illustrates⁶ the fraught⁷ atmosphere between undocumented immigrants and federal immigration agents these days.

JOSE DE JESUS MARTINEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: The father says, "Brandon was being moved to another hospital room when several agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement walked in. They asked me in an aggressive manner - who was I, and what was I doing there?"

MARTINEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: Martinez says several nurses formed a human wall between him and the officers. Martinez's lawyer was there, too. He had feared this exact scenario⁸ - that the hospital would be crawling with immigration agents. Martinez was terrified. In the current climate, unauthorized immigrants expect ICE to use any pretext⁹ to arrest and deport¹⁰ them. Attorney Alex Galvez says he stood with the nurses who confronted the agents.

ALEX GALVEZ: The nurses started raising their voices saying, look, this is not the right place where this should be happening. Go outside. Take it outside. We've got sick kids inside.

BURNETT: North Central Baptist Hospital declined to confirm or deny what happened, citing patient confidentiality¹¹. ICE gives a different account of what happened in the pediatric ICU.

SHANE FOLDEN: Even though it was a hectic¹² situation, the agents certainly remained calm at all times. And there was certainly no yelling.

BURNETT: Shane Folden is special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations¹³ in San Antonio, which is leading the probe into what's being called el camion de la muerte, the truck of death. He says his agents were there to protect witnesses, and they had no idea Martinez was the father.

FOLDEN: Agents don't know who those individuals were. They could have been members of the smuggling network trying to abscond¹⁴ with cellphones or other evidence.

BURNETT: The father and the lawyer say the agents eventually calmed down. In fact, they say ICE officers apologized to Martinez and said they were praying for Brandon's recovery. ICE's Shane Folden allows...

FOLDEN: They certainly may have apologized.

BURNETT: Brandon Martinez has, by all accounts, made a remarkable¹⁵ recovery. He's been discharged from the hospital and is now living at a federal shelter with three other juveniles¹⁶ who survived the smuggling ordeal¹⁷. In all, the government is holding 22 of the smuggling victims as material witnesses against the driver. Later on, they could be deported¹⁸ or qualify for special visas for victims of crime.

In recent weeks, ICE has started to aggressively arrest parents and relatives who paid smugglers to bring their kids here. They cite the San Antonio case as an example of how ruthless these smuggling networks are. Jose de Jesus Martinez insists he did not pay his son's $7,000 smuggling fee. He claims he didn't even know Brandon was traveling up from Aguascalientes, Mexico, to Denver, where the dad lives.

MARTINEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: "He knew how I suffered when I came up," the father says. He went on to describe his own smuggling nightmare, how the coyote who was paid to take him and other migrants across the border held them in a hotel and extorted¹⁹ them for more money.

MARTINEZ: (Speaking Spanish).

BURNETT: Martinez says the coyote left them in the Rio Grande Valley, where they walked for three days and three nights and ran out of water. He says he injured his feet so badly that it took him a month to recover. The father concludes, "my son knew how much I suffered, but he didn't want to listen."

John Burnett, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF WAX TAILOR'S "THE ROAD IS RUFF (FEAT. LEE FIELDS)")

1 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

2 indicted   

控告，起诉( indict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The senator was indicted for murder. 那位参议员被控犯谋杀罪。
• He was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of murder. 他被大陪审团以两项谋杀罪名起诉。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 comatose   

adj.昏睡的，昏迷不醒的

参考例句：

• Those in extreme fear can be put into a comatose type state.那些极端恐惧的人可能会被安放进一种昏迷状态。
• The doctors revived the comatose man.这个医生使这个昏睡的苏醒了。

5 blistering   

adj.酷热的；猛烈的；使起疱的；可恶的v.起水疱；起气泡；使受暴晒n.[涂料] 起泡

参考例句：

• The runners set off at a blistering pace. 赛跑运动员如脱缰野马般起跑了。
• This failure is known as preferential wetting and is responsible for blistering. 这种故障称为优先吸湿，是产生气泡的原因。 来自辞典例句

6 illustrates   

给…加插图( illustrate的第三人称单数 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明

参考例句：

• This historical novel illustrates the breaking up of feudal society in microcosm. 这部历史小说是走向崩溃的封建社会的缩影。
• Alfred Adler, a famous doctor, had an experience which illustrates this. 阿尔弗莱德 - 阿德勒是一位著名的医生，他有过可以说明这点的经历。 来自中级百科部分

7 fraught   

adj.充满…的，伴有(危险等)的；忧虑的

参考例句：

• The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions.未来数月将充满重大的决定。
• There's no need to look so fraught!用不着那么愁眉苦脸的！

8 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

9 pretext   

n.借口，托词

参考例句：

• He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.他借口头疼而不去上学。
• He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.他以生病为借口，没参加那个会议。

10 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

11 confidentiality   

n.秘而不宣，保密

参考例句：

• They signed a confidentiality agreement. 他们签署了一份保守机密的协议。
• Cryptography is the foundation of supporting authentication, integrality and confidentiality. 而密码学是支持认证、完整性和机密性机制的基础。

12 hectic   

adj.肺病的；消耗热的；发热的；闹哄哄的

参考例句：

• I spent a very hectic Sunday.我度过了一个忙乱的星期天。
• The two days we spent there were enjoyable but hectic.我们在那里度过的两天愉快但闹哄哄的。

13 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

14 abscond   

v.潜逃，逃亡

参考例句：

• Kenobi managed to kill Grievous，and abscond with his starfighter.克诺比试图击毙了格里沃斯，并拿他的战斗机逃跑了。
• You can not abscond from your responsibilities.你不能逃避你的职责。

15 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

16 juveniles   

n.青少年( juvenile的名词复数 )；扮演少年角色的演员；未成年人

参考例句：

• Do you think that punishment for violent crimes should be the same for juveniles and adults? 你对暴力犯罪的惩罚对于青少年和成人应一样吗？ 来自生活英语口语25天快训
• Juveniles Should we not exactly in need of such strength and conviction? 少年的我们难道不正是需要这种力量和信念吗？ 来自互联网

17 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

18 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 extorted   

v.敲诈( extort的过去式和过去分词 )；曲解

参考例句：

• The gang extorted money from over 30 local businesses. 这帮歹徒向当地30多户商家勒索过钱财。
• He extorted a promise from me. 他硬要我答应。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》