News - World: At least seven people have been killed and a dozen more injured after an SUV plowed into people waiting at a bus stop in the US city of Brownsville in Texas.

The victims, who are believed to be migrants, were at a stop located near a homeless shelter that attends to migrants in Brownsville when they were struck, a senior law enforcement official told NBC News.

The victims were waiting at a bus stop near Ozanam Center, a shelter for the homeless used by migrants. He said some migrants were among the dead.

A senior law enforcement official said that authorities believed it was an intentional act. But later the official said an investigation was underway to determine the truth behind the incident. 

A video circulating online shows the crash shows a speeding SUV plowing into a row of people sitting on the curb.

A second video of the aftermath appears to show victims lying on the ground, some bloodied and writhing, while others lay motionless.

Lieutenant Martin Sandoval of the Brownsville Police Department said the male driver was in custody.

"We are doing an investigation in forms of intoxication to see if he was intoxicated at the time of the accident," said Sandoval on Fox News.

Sandoval said the driver has not been cooperating with investigators.

"He has given us several names," said Sandoval, adding that they are waiting for a fingerprint match that will hopefully identify the driver.

Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. of Cameron County it was not clear if the driver had crashed into the group intentionally or lost control of the vehicle.

However, several eyewitnesses told the media that the act was intentional. Videos of the incident suggest that deliberate.

The city of Brownsville is one of the places expecting an influx of migrants from Mexico when COVID-era restrictions under Title 42 expire on Thursday, according to Reuters.

Washington’s interference in Latin America has exacerbated the immigration problem in the United States, Robert Patillo, an American political activist and attorney, told Press TV recently, citing the US administration’s effort to overthrow the government of President Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

Immigration from Venezuela to America has increased since then and now it has become a major problem for the country, he explained.

While the US government had prepared for the end of Title 42 with more staffing and fencing along the southern border, it was not clear how it would have stemmed an expected surge.

Some 2.5 million people were intercepted while trying to cross the border in the 12 months through November.

Most of the migrants crossing the border are from Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba. 

Central American immigrants are fleeing “the hell” that the United States created for them in their countries, according to Myles Hoenig, an American political analyst and activist.

"Why are these immigrants here? What role did the US play in creating the hell from where they’re escaping?" he asked. 

Hoenig also said that immigrants who come to the US “are being deprived, not just of basic human rights and their dignity, but the rule of law and our historical responsibility.”

Source: Press TV