EL PASO – Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas visited on Tuesday this border city beset by the latest migrant surge, assuring local leaders that plans are underway for the lifting of a pandemic-related public health order.
Mayorkas also had choice words for migrants listening to smugglers urging them to make a run for the U.S. border by Dec. 21. That’s the day that the rule, known as Title 42, will be lifted under orders from a federal judge.
Mayorkas’ message to migrants: “You are only imperiling your lives, and you’re wasting your money, and you are proceeding in very fragile terrain.
He was speaking to reporters, including a KTEP public radio journalist. “The plan that we have set out is to enforce our immigration laws,” he said. “That means our laws of asylum and our laws of removal are laws of enforcement.”
After Title 42 is lifted, he said, part of the Biden administration’s contingency plan is “an increased reliance on expedited removal, which means people will be removed very quickly, and that’s the message they should hear.”
Mayorkas’ visit to El Paso came just hours after one of the largest groups of migrants, mostly from Nicaragua, crossed the Rio Grande into El Paso.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, said the number of migrants crossing the border has “created an unprecedented strain” and requires more federal resources.
“While I am extremely grateful to the Biden administration for the millions of dollars they have provided El Paso in financial support, in both upfront funding and reimbursements, as well as their ongoing work with neighboring countries to address root causes, that long-overdue work will bear fruit immediately,” Escobar said.
She said she asked the Biden administration for more resources to local governments and funding to federally-operated short-term emergency shelters.
On Monday, 19 Republican-controlled states, including Texas, filed an emergency legal request to delay the lifting of Title 42.
The sights and sounds throughout the city may well be a preview of what’s to come here and across the border next week when Title 42 is lifted. The order has allowed U.S. border agents to expel migrants more than 2 million times without giving them a chance to apply for asylum under the justification that it was for pandemic safety.
In El Paso, helicopters buzz overhead. Bus stations and airports are full. Shelters run by faith organizations, the city and the county are at capacity. So much so that dozens of migrants spent Monday night on the streets as temperatures fell. By Tuesday, El Paso police had moved dozens of migrants from the city’s Union Plaza.
“Remember, what we are seeing is people who are claiming asylum,” Mayorkas said. “And we see them surrendering themselves to Border Patrol to assert their claims for humanitarian relief, as our laws provide.”
Mayorkas, who’s been under fire by Republicans for what many call Biden’s “open border” policies, said, “Quite frankly, it’s an extraordinarily powerful picture of why we need our immigration system reformed through legislation. Our asylum system is broken. Our immigration system as a whole is broken. It hasn’t been updated or reformed in more than 40 years.”
He applauded the efforts of Canada, whose immigration system, he said, is more “nimble” and can be “retooled to the needs at the moment.”
“For example, Canada is in need of 1 million workers, and they have agreed that in 2023, they will admit 1.4 million …. to fill that labor need… That’s a system that addresses the labor needs, according to a willing labor force. We [in the U.S.] are stuck in antiquated laws that do not meet our current needs.”
Mayorkas said finding a solution to the humanitarian crisis requires collaboration throughout the hemisphere, including countries in Latin America.
One key stakeholder is Mexico, whose cooperation has been an “incredibly productive partnership,” he said. He pointed to what he called “a success story” – the creation of humanitarian visas for Ukrainians and Venezuelans.
He refused to share details on what U.S. and Mexico officials are discussing, but applauded efforts that have led to a dramatic decrease of Venezuelan migrants.
Recently, buses headed north had taken a detour and left passengers in the “waiting arms [of] bad people,” said Marjorie Blanco, a migrant from Nicaragua. She said she and hundreds more were held for more than a week. “We were all forced to pay these men” about 5,000 pesos individually, or about $250. By Sunday night, they had made their way across the border into El Paso.
Mayorkas said his agency has been talking to Mexican federal authorities to ensure “this never happens again.”
This story is a collaboration between Mexico Border Correspondent Alfredo Corchado and Angela Kocherga of KTEP public radio in El Paso Staff writer Aaron Torres in Austin contributed to this report.
