EL PASO — Tension, confusion and uncertainty reigned here and across the U.S.-Mexico border Tuesday as thousands of migrants sought shelter from the bitter cold, the Texas National Guard arrived on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande and President Joe Biden’s administration asked the Supreme Court for more time to prepare for the lifting of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy of rapidly expelling migrants that had been set to expire Wednesday.
Some of the 400 members of the Texas National Guard deployed by Gov. Greg Abbott occupied the banks of the Rio Grande on the U.S. side, installing concertina wire. Guard members were spotted on top of the levee in an area that had previously served as a temporary mobile processing center for the U.S. Border Patrol.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, the highest elected official in this county of some 800,000 people, was swift in his opposition.
“I will see if I can send a letter immediately to the governor of my insistence that coordinated efforts whether busing, medical supplies or enforcement are essential,” he said. “Uncoordinated or unsolicited initiatives of any kind from the state will likely be disruptive and will undoubtedly add to our challenges.”
Laura Cruz Acosta, the city’s strategic communications director, said: “Texas Guard personnel are providing humanitarian support to migrants. They are providing logistical support processing travel for migrants.” The Texas Military Department and Department of Public Safety, she confirmed, are running a training exercise near downtown — “an independent activity… not associated with our local humanitarian operations or activities.”
Late Tuesday afternoon, the Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to end Title 42 asylum restrictions, but asked the court for a delay until at least after Christmas, The Associated Press reported.
The federal government acknowledged in its filing to the Supreme Court that the end of Title 42 will likely lead to “disruption and a temporary increase in unlawful border crossings” but asked the court to reject efforts by a group of conservative-leaning states to keep Title 42 in place.
The Supreme Court had temporarily blocked the Biden administration from ending Title 42. The court is leaving open the prospect of lifting the restrictions by Wednesday,
Abbott blasts Biden
In a letter dated Tuesday, Dec. 20, Abbott demanded that President Biden deploy federal resources to address the border crisis. “With cold temperatures gripping Texas, your inaction to secure the southern border is putting the lives of migrants at risk, particularly in the City of El Paso,” Abbott wrote.
“With thousands of men, women, and children illegally crossing into Texas every day, and with the expectation that those numbers will only increase if Title 42 expulsions end, the state is overburdened as we respond to this disaster caused by you and your administration,” Abbott wrote.
Title 42 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 done for pandemic safety.
The lifting of the health rule was expected to lead to a rise in migrants seeking to turn themselves in to U.S. immigration authorities at the border. U.S. immigration officials cautioned that dynamics are shifting, and the feared numbers may not come near what officials have been predicting.
The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday that the average daily encounters have dropped 40% — from roughly 2,500 a day to roughly 1,500 a day — over the last three days as U.S. officials work with partners in Mexico to discourage disorderly migration and disrupt criminal smuggling operations.
Along the U.S.-Mexico border
Beyond El Paso, other cities along the U.S.-Mexico border are seeing an increase in migrant groups.
In Matamoros, Mexico, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, shelters have filled with anxious migrants, said Victor Cavazos, co-director of the nonprofit Sidewalk School. Many more migrants have filled shelters in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
Cavazos estimated about 3,000 migrants were waiting in Matamoros and at least 5,000 were waiting in Reynosa, both for the lifting of Title 42.
The Rio Grande Valley was the busiest region for U.S. immigration authorities until migrants pushed the Del Rio region and then El Paso to the top.
In October, the most recent month for which there are statistics, about 28,000 migrants were encountered in the Rio Grande Valley region, and about 11,000 were quickly expelled under Title 42, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The El Paso region had 53,000 encounters that month.
“People are camping out on the streets, on sidewalks near the [Gateway International] bridge,” said Cavazos. Just three years ago, migrants pitched tents on the same wide sidewalks leading into Brownsville.
“Title 42 is really inhumane,” Cavazos said. “It forces people into situations where they have nothing, and they are easy prey for bad actors. We are eagerly waiting for Title 42 to end.”
In Del Rio, where migration hit a high point this summer and fall, Tiffany Burrow, the operations director of the Val Verde Border Humanitarian Center, said the day shelter has seen increasing numbers of migrants. This year, the respite center has seen twice as many migrants as last year. “Over 46,000 and continuing to climb,” Burrow said.
Thomas Cartwright, an immigrant advocate with Witness at the Border, said flights have brought migrants from El Paso to Laredo, Harlingen and San Diego.
“There have generally been four a day,” said Cartwright. “Processing centers in El Paso are way overcrowded.” So the federal government is using planes to transport migrants to other facilities with more capacity, he said.
Border shelters are packed
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser warned that shelters across the border in Ciudad Juárez are packed to capacity with an estimated 20,000 migrants who are prepared to cross into the U.S.
Despite the court stay Monday, the city of El Paso rushed to expand its ability to accommodate more migrants by converting large buildings into shelters, as the Red Cross brings in 10,000 cots.
Local officials also say they hope to relieve pressure on local shelters by chartering buses to other large cities in Texas or nearby states, bringing migrants a step closer to relatives and sponsors in coordination with nonprofit groups.
“We will continue to be prepared for whatever is coming through,” Leeser said.
El Paso, a largely Democratic city, is also home to Fort Bliss, a massive military base, and dozens of federal agencies. But it has resisted seeking help from Abbott’s Operation Lone Star, which includes the deployment of state police officers and National Guard members along the border, according to Samaniego.
Unlike several border counties, the city has not taken part in the state’s program of arresting migrants for criminal trespassing on private land. The city has largely resisted participating in Abbott’s busing program, which has sent buses of migrants to New York City, Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., according to Samaniego.
Instead, the county has been coordinating with nongovernmental organizations to send hundreds of migrants daily in buses to cities like Dallas, Phoenix, Houston and Denver with huge airport hubs that can transport migrants across the country, Samaniego said.
In Ciudad Juárez
In Ciudad Juárez, a group of migrants had planned to stand in line at the border Tuesday night with the hope that Title 42 would be lifted at midnight. They looked on in disbelief.
A few weeks ago, they had set up a camp called “Little Venezuela,” on the banks of the Rio Grande, across from a temporary U.S. Border Patrol mobile processing center. Now, instead of the processing center, they saw members of the Texas National Guard and officials with the Department of Public Safety.
“They’re treating us like terrorists, carrying high-powered weapons,” said Otnik Parra, 49, a Venezuelan man who stood on the Mexico side. “We come in peace, ready to get in line and apply for asylum. We’re not doing anything illegal.”
At a park less than a block away, Jose Andres Linares Perez, 31, also from Venezuela, broke down in frustration. “I tried to do everything legal, just as I was told, to wait for the end of Title 42 and stand in line, and present my case to immigration authorities,” he said.
“I sold everything — my house, my car. I crossed seven countries. And every time I think I know what the policy is, there is a new change,” he said. “Honestly, I have given up on this thing we call the American dream.” He’d rather go to Canada, he added.
“I don’t trust anyone, not the government of Venezuela, Mexico, or the United States, and much less the smugglers,” said Mayra Cuenca, 39. “However, had I been smart, I should have listened to the smugglers who told me days ago to cross. I didn’t. I waited for Dec. 21. And for what?”
She buried her face in her hands. “All I have is my faith that somehow life will get better,” she finally said.
Alfredo Corchado reported from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, and Dianne Solis reported from Dallas. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
