{"id":172459,"date":"2026-02-20T05:12:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:12:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172459\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T05:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T05:12:29","slug":"community-calls-for-action-as-problems-persist-at-memorial-for-53-migrants-on-quintana-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/172459\/","title":{"rendered":"Community calls for action as problems persist at memorial for 53 migrants on Quintana Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The memorial honoring 53 migrants<\/a>, who died in the deadliest human smuggling case in U.S. history, is once again the focus of community concern. <\/p>\n

Neighbors tell KSAT 12 that crime, vandalism and theft continue at the Quintana Road site on San Antonio\u2019s Southwest Side.<\/p>\n

Volunteers working in the area said they need help from the city to keep the property safe. Meanwhile, Council Member Edward Muniga, who represents District 4 where the memorial is located, said he\u2019s working to find a solution to address these ongoing concerns.<\/p>\n

On June 27, 2022, authorities found 67 migrants inside a sweltering semitrailer on Quintana Road. After it happened, the San Antonio community built crosses to remember those who died.<\/p>\n

Around the one-year mark of the tragedy, the city unveiled its permanent memorial<\/a> on the road. <\/p>\n

The memorials stood until March 22, 2025, when the community-made crosses were vandalized<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat has changed to protect this memorial in the last year?\u201d KSAT Reporter Avery Everett asked Angelita Olvera. Olvera is a volunteer who upkeeps the memorial. <\/p>\n

\u201cReally, nothing has changed,\u201d Olvera said. \u201cWe were told that we were gonna have cameras put here and that we\u2019re still waiting on them.\u201d <\/p>\n

Olvera said illegal dumping and stealing are still persistent problems. <\/p>\n

Muniga said he is looking into adding possibly cameras or lights to the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are some infrastructure concerns and issues that have come up,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The councilman said that because Quintana Road is wide and industrial, bigger lights are needed than those that can be run by solar panels. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe nearest power source, unfortunately, is all the way down to the I-35 area,\u201d Mungia said. \u201cIt has been challenging, but we continue to push on.\u201d <\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s looking at options for an exemption to add solar panel lights to the memorial site. <\/p>\n

San Antonio police confirmed Thursday no arrests have been made for the 2025 vandalism incident. <\/p>\n

As far as the arrests made for the 2022 tragedy, two men have been sentenced so far. A third sentencing was expected this week<\/a>, but was pushed back because of technical difficulties<\/a> in court.<\/p>\n

KSAT has extensively covered the Quintana Road tragedy and vandalism of the memorial. Read more of our reporting below:<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 The memorial honoring 53 migrants, who died in the deadliest human smuggling case in U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172460,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[294,66583,1724,68460,82,84,83,5502,4549],"class_list":{"0":"post-172459","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-crime","9":"tag-edward-muniga","10":"tag-immigration","11":"tag-quintana-road","12":"tag-san-antonio","13":"tag-san-antonio-headlines","14":"tag-san-antonio-news","15":"tag-theft","16":"tag-vandalism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172459\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}