Washington, December 13 (EFE).- The hundreds of migrants who crossed the Mexican border en masse on Monday to surrender to the US authorities overran the city of El Paso (Texas) and many of them had to spend the first night on the streets. Low temperatures in the midst of chaos.
A week after the end of Title 42, the accelerated return of migrants at the border, border cities and charities fear daily and massive arrivals of migrants, as happened in El Paso, and asked the administration of Joe Biden to help receive these families. .
Dozens of families who were part of a caravan of about 1,500 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande in recent days braved temperatures below 0 degrees Celsius (32 Fahrenheit) outside overnight, accompanied by rain and drizzle.
Given the state of emergency, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is expected to visit El Paso this Tuesday.
Lt. Chris Olivares, of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told local media that he hopes the federal official “understands the concerns of local residents.”
“We have to find a way to stop this, it is necessary that the policy is used,” Olivares added in statements to the ABC channel.
“El Paso has never experienced mass migration like this. The numbers are historic,” he said.
Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar today called on Biden for more border security, saying the problem is that criminals are taking advantage of their business by telling migrants it’s time to cross the border because it’s open.
The migrants who crossed in the last few hours are part of a caravan that was hijacked by criminals on the way to Durango (Mexico).
After months of travel, about 1,500 migrants arrived in northern Mexico in the past few hours to surrender to border patrol authorities and claim political asylum.
The Biden administration has until December 21 to comply with a federal judge’s order to stop using Title 42.
This is a measure ordered by Donald Trump’s government (2017-2021) under the pretext of a pandemic and which has allowed the accelerated deportation of more than 2.7 million migrants.
Various media outlets have reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is seeking an additional $3 billion from Congress to deal with the surge in undocumented immigrant arrivals once Title 42 is repealed.
In El Paso, CBP found a thousand migrants near downtown in the past few hours and called in agents from other cities to handle the situation.
Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino told local media that he is not sure the federal government will reimburse the city for the costs caused by the increase in migrants.
He noted that the municipality could spend $4.7 million per month from January to March 2023 to process and shelter 600 migrants per day.
The city’s five shelters are already full “and it’s not a day-to-day situation, it’s an hour-by-hour situation,” laments John Martin, deputy director of the Center for Homeless Shelter Opportunities.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) apprehended 230,678 undocumented migrants at the southern border in October, resulting in 78,477 deportations under Title 42.
During fiscal year 2022, which ended Sept. 30, CBP apprehended 2,378,984 undocumented migrants at the southern border, resulting in 1,079,507 removals under Title 42.
Source: El Diario
