Migrants Overwhelm Texas City of Eagle Pass; Immigration Border Upheaval Stokes Fear Among Eagle Pass Residents: ‘Send extra help’

Migrants Overwhelm Texas City of Eagle Pass:

Local officials declare emergency, ask for state and federal help as crossings rise from Mexico

Texas—A growing wave of migration that has been building at the U.S.-Mexico border for the past few months is exploding in this small Texas city.

Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. declared a state of emergency as thousands of migrants are entering daily, overwhelming the resources of federal border agents and the community’s only shelter.

About 3,000 migrants crossed into Eagle Pass on Wednesday and another 3,000 are on track to enter Thursday, said U.S. Rep. Tony Gonzalez, who represents the city in Congress. He said the Border Patrol estimates that by Friday, 10,000 migrants will have illegally entered Eagle Pass in a week.

“We are on pace for this to be the worst of the border crisis yet, and we’ve seen some doozies,” the Republican said.

On Thursday morning, roughly 100 migrants, primarily from Venezuela, lined up on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande, waiting in muddy, calf-deep water for U.S. authorities to take them into custody. The group appeared to be a mix of families and adults traveling alone. One toddler stood with water up to his waist, holding his mother’s hand.

Ahead of them stood several layers of razor wire, on which discarded clothes and children’s shoes were snagged by people who left them behind.

“We suffered a lot in our country. We won’t go back,” one woman in the group shouted, pointing backward to Mexico. The woman said she had been traveling for two months. “We’re cold and tired,” she said.

Amid the chaos, a 3-year-old drowned crossing the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass Wednesday, according to Texas authorities. —>READ MORE HERE

Immigration border upheaval stokes fear among Eagle Pass residents: ‘Send extra help’:

An endless flow of immigrants streamed across the Rio Grande onto U.S. soil in Eagle Pass daily this week, sending the Border Patrol deep into a “catch and release” state of operations and spooking residents unaccustomed to the unfamiliar faces showing up in their once-quiet neighborhoods.

Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, an Eagle Pass native, said “security” in town is a growing concern given how many people have already been released after entering Eagle Pass this week.

“I feel worried because the people in the community here, some are afraid because they see strangers walking through their neighborhood. They don’t know who they are or what their intentions are,” said Schmerber, who added that break-ins, burglaries, and drug seizures are occurring in the community.

Internal Border Patrol data viewed by the Washington Examiner revealed that 3,054 people were in custody in the Eagle Pass/Del Rio region of south-central Texas as of Thursday morning — far beyond the Border Patrol’s maximum facility capacity of 1,845.

The overcapacity problem has prompted Border Patrol to process and then release or remove people as fast as possible to avoid a clog in the pipeline. It means immigrants who do not make an asylum claim will overwhelmingly be released with a notice to appear in court in several years, according to three federal officials with firsthand knowledge of how immigrants are being processed.

One federal law enforcement agent at the bridge described the past few days as “organized chaos.” Among Border Patrol agents from rank and file to management, agents feel the priority is cycling through people in order to accommodate the new arrivals that stream across every hour, day and night.

“It’s always ‘let’s get as many bodies out of here as we can,'” the agent wrote in a message. “Intake is a mess.”

But with only one nonprofit group in the remote city of 30,000 residents to receive immigrants who get released into the community, Border Patrol has been forced to release countless immigrants directly onto the street. Many immigrants have no money and no idea where to go or who to trust. San Antonio is roughly two hours away by car. —>READ MORE HERE

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