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In June 2022, fifty-three migrants died in a sweltering tractor trailer in Texas in the deadliest migrant-trafficking incident on record in the United States.

“One hundred fifty-three, the tag is inside,” they called out in relief.

They were carrying locksmith tools, electronic surveillance equipment, and, between them, fifty-three crisp, sequentially numbered hundred-dollar bills.

He didn’t mention that he’d already made it to level fifty-three.

The staff had been handling the first fifty-three patients for the better part of two years, with astonishing results.