As President Donald Trump threatens to block the 14,000 person caravan heading our way, we already have had a crisis building. Hundreds of Central American immigrant families have already arrived at the border and been released into the U.S. by authorities. The huge influx of people from everywhere has caused overflowing crowds and the release of the many people into our general population with the promise they will come back for their asylum hearing.
Detention centers are 98 percent full, forcing the release of illegals more rapidly and in larger groups into the general population or to volunteer advocacy groups.
Immigration holding areas and detention centers across the southwest say they are “receiving a caravan a month”.
“HERE’S WHERE THEY GO”
There are 16 religious groups in El Paso and nearby Las Cruces, N.M., that volunteer to house the people who need a place to stay.
Herald-Mail Media reports:
Border Patrol caught a record 16,658 immigrant family members crossing the border illegally in September, a White House spokesman said in briefings this week. More than 161,000 immigrant family members were caught or turned themselves in during the fiscal year that ended last month, 42 percent more than in any previous year, the spokesman said.
Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona was called on to shelter 250 immigrants last week, using motel rooms for overflow; 350 the week before in Tucson and another 250 in Yuma. When Greyhound bus service east slowed due to Hurricane Michael earlier this month, they chartered a bus with donations.
“It’s difficult to maintain this level of intensity,” said Teresa Cavendish, the nonprofit’s director of operations, who said they were warned to expect another 80 immigrants Wednesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, who dropped immigrants off at the motel where the group rented rooms, visited the nonprofit’s leaders Wednesday and warned that the first wave of the migrant caravan of 7,000 traveling northward could reach the border next week. Shelters are already full, and volunteers are exhausted, Cavendish said.
“Folks from ICE are doing their best in terms of estimating the number of people they will be able to accommodate in their facilities,” said Marguerite “Peg” Harmon, CEO of the Catholic relief group. “They don’t know either how many people they will get on a given day.”
At the two El Paso motels, which Garcia asked not be identified for safety reasons, volunteers greeted arriving immigrant families with a brief orientation, then steered them toward showers and meals in a food tent set up in the parking lot. Afterward, working out of several rooms converted into makeshift offices, volunteers distributed room keys and helped families contact relatives to stay with as their immigration court cases proceed. Relatives usually pay bus fare so the new arrivals can join them.
Volunteers recorded the immigrants’ information on cards tacked to bulletin boards, including their departure times and destinations, which ranged from Charleston and New Orleans to Pittsburgh, Iowa City and Los Angeles.
Texas is the #1 state for refugees and now we have an overflow of illegal asylum seekers who come to the U.S for many different reasons.
This is JUST the number of refugees flown into the U.S. This number does not include the “asylum seeking” refugees who come across our border!
