Thursday, September 21, 2023

Overwhelmed Texas city declares state of emergency as over 11K migrants — close to half its population — surge across border

Overwhelmed Texas city declares state of emergency as over 11K migrants — close to half its population — surge across border



An unprecedented surge of 4,000 migrants streamed across the US border with Mexico into Eagle Pass, Texas, on Wednesday — forcing the overwhelmed city to declare a state of emergency.

Mayor Rolando Salinas said a separate 2,500-person mob crossed the border into the city illegally Monday, on top of approximately 7,200 illegal crossers apprehended in the previous week. 

The surge is the largest since 15,000 Haitian immigrants camped out under the bridge in neighboring Del Rio, Texas, nearly two years ago to the day, officials said — an incident that resulted in a major humanitarian crisis. 

Salinas said the new mob, many of them from Venezuela, has overrun Mission Border Hope, the only migrant shelter in the border city.

“One of the situations is that a lot of these [migrants], they’re single males and they don’t want to listen to instructions and they’re leaving the facility,” the mayor said. 

“Not all of these people come in peace.”

He also said the huge influx over the last week — close to 50% of the city’s 29,000 population — has “taken a toll on our local resources, especially our local police force and our fire department.” 

Speaking to The Post, Salinas also warned he had been told another 4,000 to 8,000 people in a number of separate groups are heading to the city.

Eagle Pass has a US Customs and Border Protection processing facility that opened in 2022 with a capacity for 1,000 people. Many of those who are currently in custody are being held in an overflow facility at one of the two international bridges in the city. 

Salinas warned: “Within a day or two, we should be able to clear out the people under the bridge. But if we get another wave tomorrow, it’s Del Rio all over again.”

The crisis has also forced CBP to shut down one of the international bridges so the agency could reassign the agents who work there to help process migrants, according to Salinas, who added that the move will cost the local economy $15,000 a day in lost revenue.

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