Thousands of migrants have been camping in Mexico awaiting a chance to enter the United States as court battles over which laws to use to deal with migrants arriving at the border continue.
Migrants are sleeping in tents set up by the faith-based organization Ministerio Senda de Vida in two camps in Reynosa, Mexico, just across the border from McAllen, Texas.
By early this week, there were about 1,300 people in one camp and 3,000 in another. Many of them were from Haiti.
Silva stated that there is insufficient space at the encampments. Thousands more are waiting outside the encampments.
Arrivals at the border have increased in recent weeks, coinciding with what was supposed to be a deadline change in the law used to deal with migrant arrivals on Wednesday.
The law, enacted by the Trump administration during the pandemic, allows people to be deported from the United States without being granted asylum. However, because it does not have penalties for multiple attempts to cross, as Title 8 does, the recidivism rate has increased.
The debate over the Trump-era law, known as Title 42, had stymied efforts in Congress to pass a broad funding bill before the session ended. The Senate, on the other hand, passed the $1.7 trillion funding bill on Thursday, despite the failure of votes on two Title 42 amendments; the bill now goes to the House.
The Biden administration is thinking about limiting the number of migrants who can apply for asylum. One proposal is to allow Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Cubans to apply from their home countries for humanitarian parole. A similar program for Venezuelans began in the fall.
El Paso declared a state of emergency this week in an effort to get more help sheltering migrants and transporting them to cities with more and cheaper flights to other parts of the country, or to get them on buses. The shelters became more necessary as colder winter weather was forecasted for Thursday.
The state sent National Guard troops and Department of Public Safety troopers to the city as part of its response. They erected concertina wire and stationed themselves and their vehicles along a concrete embankment on the US side of the Rio Grande to deter migrants from entering.
However, migrants waited in freezing temperatures along the border on Thursday for a chance to pass through border barriers and request asylum.
Many of the migrants’ journeys can be dangerous. Jorge and Carmen Negracia travelled from Ecuador to the United States last week.
Negracia claims they were moved to different locations, shaken down for more money, and held with thousands of other people until they were freed by military officers. Because they were forced to call their families to wire money, the Mexican military discovered their location.
“If it weren’t for those calls, no one would have known where we were or what was happening to us,” said Negracia.
Suzanne Gamboa reported from San Antonio, while Morgan Chesky and Kayla McCormick reported from Reynosa, Mexico. Jaylinn Herrera from New York contributed.
