"We have never seen these amounts": This border city is overwhelmed by the arrival of migrants

By Valerie González -

Shelters in the Texas border city of Brownsville scrambled on Saturday to try to accommodate the thousands of migrants who US authorities say abruptly crossed from Mexico, testing a stretch of the US border.

The frantic flow of arrivals surprised this city located in the extreme south of the state, almost on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, saturating the response capacity of social services and forcing a night shelter to make the unusual decision to turn away new arrivals .

A group of people leave a migrant welcome center in Brownsville, Texas, on Friday, April 28, 2023. Valerie Gonzalez / AP

Since last week, more than 15,000 migrants, most of them Venezuelans, have crossed the Rio Grande irregularly, according to authorities.

This number represents a considerable increase compared to the 1,700 migrants that Border Patrol agents apprehended in the first two weeks of April, according to officials with the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP). ).

“It is very worrying because the logistical challenge that we faced is enormous,” said Gloria Chávez, head of the Border Patrol's Rio Grande Valley sector.

The authorities have not yet attributed this increase to any specific reason.

Chávez pointed out that migrants have felt a lot of frustration depending on a government application to request asylum that has suffered many technical problems.

Some of those who crossed this week cited other reasons, including threats from drug cartels.

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This rebound occurs when the government of President Joe Biden is preparing to put an end to Title 42 on May 11, a measure adopted by the Donald Trump Administration during the pandemic that prohibited applying for asylum alluding to the health emergency.

Federal authorities warn that daily crossings may go from 5,200 in March to 13,000.

This situation is also being experienced in cities far from the border such as Chicago, where the authorities reported this week that the arrival of migrants has multiplied by 10 when they usually receive about 100 a day.

Brownsville is located on one side of the Rio Grande.

On the other is the Mexican city of Matamoros, where a makeshift camp has been erected that houses some 2,000 people waiting to cross into the United States.

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Last week, some tents were set on fire and destroyed.

Some migrants said gang members backed by cartels were responsible for the fire, but a government official hinted at the possibility that they were burned by a group of migrants frustrated by the long wait.

In downtown Brownsville, families from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and China walked aimlessly with their belongings while talking on cell phones.

Some waited for buses while others waited for their relatives to decide where to go, but few found a shelter that welcomed them.

A Venezuelan couple said they had to sleep in a parking lot after being turned away from a night shelter.

Brownsville officials this week issued a disaster declaration, as other border cities have done in the face of sudden large influxes of migrants.

"We've never seen these numbers" of people, said Martin Sandoval, a spokesman for the Police Department.

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Resources at the border are being reorganized, in one of the busiest sectors and with a considerable number of Border Patrol agents, at the gates of the end of Title 42.

The immigration authorities warn that there is a lack of budget and space to manage the expected record of asylum seekers.

One of the measures announced by Biden to counter the arrival of migrants is the opening of processing centers for asylum seekers in Central and South American countries to start the procedures (or deny them) long before they can reach the United States border. and Mexico.