Water barrels for migrants go missing at Texas border

Barrels with water jugs along the hot Texas border meant for migrants and others are missing, and a group thinks the anti-immigrant atmosphere may be a factor.

A big part of the job for Ruben Garza, an investigator in Jim Hogg County, in southwest Texas, is looking for people who have gone missing as they trek to his part of the world after crossing the border, as well as trying to identify bodies found.

These days, though, he’s had to put time into looking for the culprit behind the disappearance of dozen water barrels meant to keep trekkers and others from dying from thirst. 

The barrels stood along known routes used by people traversing the vast county and other nearby areas, some hoping to evade immigration officials, others trying to find their way to them to ask for asylum. Inside the barrels there are jugs and bottles of water, meant as a humanitarian gesture to keep the men, women and children from succumbing to the harsh heat. The barrels' disappearance was first reported by The Associated Press. 

“This better have not been malicious," Garza, who works with the sheriff’s office, told NBC News, "if we could have saved a life here."

Initially it was thought they may have been moved by road crews, but the state's Department of Transportation said it wasn't the case.