In Texas, the mass crossing of migrants flooding facilities
After nightfall on Sunday, hundreds of migrants stepped across the Rio Grande and into El Paso, a caravan of people mainly from Nicaragua whose crossing was among the largest in recent years along the West Texas border.
Their arrival en masse into the United States surprised even those in El Paso, which has in recent months found itself overwhelmed by a steady stream of migrants from Central and South America, more than 50,000 people in October alone.
Like migrants from Venezuela who flooded into El Paso this year, those arriving from Nicaragua cannot be rapidly expelled under a pandemic-era public health policy known as Title 42, which federal authorities employ with migrants from other countries, such as Mexico.
And so the scenes unfolding in El Paso offered a preview of the challenges that border officials could soon face all along the southern border after the policy comes to an end, as it is expected to, absent court intervention, next week.
Most of those who arrived on Sunday turned themselves in to federal authorities for processing. Soon, most of them would join the thousands of others who have crossed in recent days, many of whom have been released to seek help and food, some clustering at the downtown bus station, some sleeping on cardboard during a night when temperatures dipped toward freezing.
“I’m going to Nashville,” said Gabriel Moreno, 21, who left a poor-paying job in a textile factory in Nicaragua, was robbed as he crossed Mexico and, on Monday, was among those at the bus station in El Paso looking to keep going farther into the United States.
Because of strained diplomatic relations with the authoritarian regime in Nicaragua, the United States is limited in its ability to expel Nicaraguans under the public health authority and cannot repatriate the country’s citizens. And so far, Mexico has not agreed to accept them if they are expelled from the United States.
As a result, most of the Nicaraguans apprehended are released on a shortterm parole with a tracking device or sent briefly to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention where they are typically released after a few days. All will eventually be called to immigration court to face deportation orders.
Over the weekend, a huge number of people arrived in El Paso, roughly 2,000 each day, according to officials. The group of about 800 to 1,000 people that crossed on Sunday night appeared to have been the largest.
Blake Barrow, director of the Rescue Mission of El Paso, said his shelter was “bursting at the seams” as the migrant influx continued. “The numbers are like nothing I’ve seen for the last 25 years,” he said.
As recently as August, he said, nearly all of the people receiving assistance at the shelter were U.S. citizens experiencing homelessness. “Now, that number is down to about 30%,” Barrow said. “The whole dynamic has changed with the large numbers of people from countries like Nicaragua.”
Barrow said he had people sleeping anywhere that he could find for them. “Honestly, I don’t know how to address this problem,” he said. “The situation is overwhelming us.”
The number of arrivals extended far beyond the large caravan that arrived on Sunday and did not appear to be abating. Rosalio Sosa, who runs a network of shelters including in Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, said migrants were still crossing the border on Monday afternoon. Across the river, a line had formed as the latest arrivals waited to be processed by U.S. authorities.
“The queue right now is endless,” he said.
It was the second time in recent months that large migrant crossings threatened to overwhelm the resources of the impoverished border town and the federal immigration authorities who are strained by what has been a steady arrival of migrants this year. More than 5,000 migrants were in the Border Patrol’s central processing center on Monday, according to El Paso officials.