The flood of illegal immigrants coming across the U.S.-Mexico border has filled holding facilities and local shelters to capacity, so officials are now simply releasing the migrants with a bus ticket and court date to appear for a hearing months in the future.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection denies the situation is “catch and release,” but folks at a bus station in McAllen, Texas seem to prove otherwise.
#UPDATE More people being released at the bus station in McAllen after being let go by CBP due to lack of space. Border Patrol agents from other stations being sent to McAllen to help with the processing of immigrants. My live report is coming up. #immigration #BorderNews #Border pic.twitter.com/b2T2hJqirI
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) March 25, 2019
KGBT reporter Sydney Hernandez explained what’s happening in a video posted to Twitter on Tuesday:
So the process that’s happening right now with Customs and Border Protection is they have no space, there’s no more, they’re at capacity, so once they are processed they are then taken to the Catholic charities here in McAllen and they too have already told us they are completely at capacity.
They have already started busing people from that respite center out to other places in Texas because they don’t have any space for them here. So right now what’s happening with these people, they have a bus ticket. They are free to go to the destination of choice and they are told to come back and appear at their court date. Some of these court dates are as far back as July.
I spoke to some of them, New York, Virginia, that’s where they’re headed. To other places that have some family with them.
In a follow up broadcast, CBP officials told KGBT they’re pulling agents from the field to process massive waves of illegal immigrants coming through the McAllen Processing Center. The department is closing checkpoints to free up manpower to process the influx, they said.
U.S. Border Patrol Special Operations Supervisor Dustin Araujo told KGBT it’s a struggle that requires officials to draw on any and all resources, though other sectors along the border are facing the same issues.
#BORDERNEWS Border Patrol agents from the Rio Grande Valley are having to relocate to help with processing due to the high number of apprehensions. They’re pulling agents away from the field and their assigned station to be sent to the McAllen Processing Center according to @CBP. pic.twitter.com/IdhryRGHyr
— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) March 26, 2019
“With the high levels of apprehensions we continue to encounter, we are having to pull resources from other components to include office and field operations, receiving assistance from the National Guard, our troops on the ground, and our contracted service providers,” he said.
It’s the same deal in Brownsville.
On Tuesday, Border Patrol bused dozens of Central American women and children to the Good Neighbor Settlement House and dropped them off, despite the fact that the facility is already at capacity.
“We’ve had a house full of young mothers and young children. We’re trying to triage them and determine whether we may have some more dropped off, trying to determine where we might put people,” Jack White, the facility’s executive director, told the Brownsville Herald.
#BORDERNEWS In the last 72 hours, Border Patrol agents encountered three large groups of over 100 people in each, illegally entering the country in the #RGV per @CBPRGV
Fri.= 131 families
Sat.=111 families
Sun.=116 families
These are only numbers for large groups, not small ones. pic.twitter.com/Zay4CnBLdS— Sydney Hernandez (@SydneyKGBT) March 25, 2019
White said he’s beginning to understand what Sister Norma Pimentel is facing at the Catholic Respite Center in McAllen.
“We are managing. I can imagine our feelings are parallel to Sister Norma when she began to receive these kinds of drop offs,” he said, adding that he’s working to find shelter for the illegal immigrants at area churches.
CBP stats show the total number of migrants presenting themselves at ports of entry or apprehended sneaking across the border continue to surge, with a total of 76,103 illegal immigrants in February alone – more than double the 36,751 identified during the same month last year.
In all of fiscal year 2018, CBP processed a total of 521,090 “apprehensions/ inadmissibles.”
Through the first five months into fiscal year 2019, that figure already stands at 318,407.
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