2023-09-22 07:08:02
EAGLE PASS, Texas (AP) — In Eagle Pass, the week began with rumors regarding a possible mass arrival of migrants. On Friday, the small border town in Texas might not cope: almost 9,000 asylum seekers, a number that continued to rise, had crossed from Mexico, an international crossing remained blocked and a three-year-old child drowned in the Rio Grande.
“We used to hear rumors and nothing happened,” said Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber. “But this time it happened.”
The response from Eagle Pass, where the mayor declared a state of emergency, illustrates how Border Patrol agents have been overwhelmed in recent days by the large number of asylum seekers arriving at parts of the US border with Mexico. In San Diego and El Paso, Texas, authorities also closed border crossings this week so that agents might help control the situation.
Following a decline in illegal border crossings following new asylum restrictions went into effect in May, President Joe Biden’s administration is once once more on the defensive. Democratic mayors and governors are seeking more support to assist asylum seekers and Republicans are trying to gain political advantage with this issue before the 2024 elections.
Traffic paralyzed downtown Eagle Pass Thursday night following authorities closed one of the city’s two international bridges to relocate officers to other posts. During the day, hundreds of migrants sat in the shade of the bridge while Border Patrol troops processed and transported them in groups.
The mayor, Rolando Salinas, said that around 2,000 people had crossed on Thursday, almost half the number the day before. But following a meeting with state police and border agents, Salinas said he was told the crowds might continue to arrive over the weekend.
“Let’s hope that’s not the case,” he said.
The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that it would grant Temporary Protected Status to approximately 472,000 Venezuelans already in the United States as of July 31, making it easier for them to obtain a work permit. This is in addition to the 242,700 Venezuelans who had already been declared eligible to receive said status.
The government is also sending 800 active-duty troops to the border, who will back up the 2,500 National Guard members already there. The capacity of border detention facilities is being expanded by 3,250 people, to almost 23,000, as well as nationwide supervision of families awaiting initial reviews of their asylum cases.
The government renewed pressure — and blame — on Congress, which has long failed to reach an agreement on comprehensive reform of the country’s immigration system. Now, Biden’s executive requests $4 billion in emergency funds.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that it was “using the limited tools at its disposal to secure the border and develop a safe, orderly and humane immigration system.”
Theresa Cardinal Brown, senior immigration and border policy adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center, a think tank that promotes bipartisanship, said it’s normal to see a decline in illegal crossings following changes like those imposed in May, but It doesn’t usually last long once migrants see how things work.
“People see what happened to the last group that tried it and they’re like, ‘Oh, well, maybe it’s not as hard as they say,’” Brown said.
But the trip to Eagle Pass ended in tragedy for some this week.
On Wednesday, a 3-year-old boy crossing the Rio Grande was swept away by the strong current and drowned before rescuers might save him, said Lt. Chris Olivarez, spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. The body of a man in his 30s also appeared next to the river on Thursday, according to Eagle Pass Fire Chief Manuel Mello.
An increase in the number of families arriving at the border has led to unacceptable conditions in two of the busiest sectors monitored by the Border Patrol, Dr. Paul H. Wise, a supervisor appointed by a federal court, reported last week in federal court. court. According to Wise, children as young as 8 were separated from their parents during processing in South Texas, a practice that has primarily been applied to minors between the ages of 13 and 17.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it was reviewing Wise’s report, noting that limited, temporary separations may occur during processing for security reasons, but are in no way similar to the long-term ones that were implemented during the government of former President Donald Trump. Wise said even a short-term separation can have “lasting damaging effects.”
Federal authorities closed a bridge and an international train in Eagle Pass on Wednesday to reassign staff. The Union Pacific Railroad Co. said Thursday that thousands of train cars cross the border there daily.
CBP told business leaders that it cannot estimate when traffic will resume at Eagle Pass, nor when truck traffic bound for the United States will reopen on a bridge in El Paso. At other border crossings, traffic moved more slowly.
In San Diego, a pedestrian crossing was closed on September 14 so that its personnel might pass to an area where migrants of different origins, from Cameroon to Colombia, wait between two border walls. Volunteers give them food and bottled water while they wait for their applications to be processed.
Near Jacumba Hot Springs — a town of fewer than 1,000 people with a small hotel and a convenience store, nestled in the rocky mountains east of San Diego and an hour’s drive away — migrant camps began forming last week for the first time. time since May.
Smugglers take migrants in vehicles to a point in Mexico where the border wall ends. One of the three campgrounds in the Jacumba Valley is regarding a half-hour walk away on a gravel road used almost exclusively by border agents. On Wednesday, none of the migrants had stayed there more than a single night, taking advantage of tents abandoned by others.
The Border Patrol gives them colored bracelets to mark the date they arrived, to determine who is moved to a processing facility first. Migrants protect themselves from the nighttime cold by huddling next to juniper bushes and lighting bonfires. Some climbed large rocks in the hope of catching a signal for their cell phones.
Ángel Sisa, 40, left the coastal region of Ecuador with his wife and two children, ages 15 and 13, following selling his general goods store to flee death threats from criminals who demanded payments. monthly. The family paid smugglers to take them by plane and bus until they arrived at a hotel in Tecate, the Mexican town closest to where they crossed.
They hope to settle in Minneapolis with other family members who left Ecuador regarding a year ago.
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Spagat reported from Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Associated Press writers Colleen Long in Washington and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.
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