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The news from San Antonio two weekends ago was sickening: Ten migrants died inside a trailer parked in a Wal Mart shopping center in sweltering heat. The victims were among as many as 70 human beings who were being smuggled into the United States by ruthless human traffickers.

The tractor-trailer where the migrants were locked in had no air conditioning. No water was available. This disregard for human life is not the first time ruthless human smugglers have show their callousness. Nineteen people died in a similar 2003 case in Victoria, about 123 miles southeast of San Antonio.

Federal lawmakers who have been unable to cobble together legislation that will end the loss of human lives, both in tractor-trailer trucks where they are packed like sardines, or in hostile environments of barren deserts.

It is easy to put the blame on human smugglers, but everyone who benefits from undocumented immigration bears part of the guilt. From the employers who hire them, to the customers who benefit from the crops they pick or the services they provide, to federal lawmakers who believe a secure the border first approach is the answer.

We are all guilty!

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick placed the blame on the recent incident on sanctuary cities.

Sanctuary cities entice people to believe they can come to America and Texas and live outside the law, said Patrick. Sanctuary cities also enable human smugglers and cartels.

Employers and consumers in the U.S. also enable human smugglers and cartels. Without a market for their labor, undocumented immigration would dry up.

Efforts like Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are just a Band-Aid for a serious issue.

So is a bipartisan DREAM Act introduced last month in the House which would allow hardworking young immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as minors to apply for legal status and eventual citizenship if they meet certain educational or military requirements, successfully pass a background check, and remain in good legal standing.

Like DACA, this does not address the majority of about 11 million undocumented residents who have worked, lived and stayed out of trouble in this country.

This is all political. When a bipartisan group of Senators introduced legislation in 2013 that would take a big step toward fixing the countrys immigration system, the House never brought it up for a vote. Never mind that there were enough votes to pass the bill.

President Donald J. Trump has made building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border a high priority, even though experts doubt that will dry up undocumented immigration to this country. More than half of undocumented immigrants do so by overstaying their visa rather than by crossing the border.

Until this country gets serious about immigration reform, expect more deaths due to inhumane traffickers.

More:
Lack of immigration reform takes a deadly toll - Vida en el Valle