By Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) – The surge of migrants crossing the U.S. border from Mexico has pushed the town of El Paso, Texas, to “a breaking level,” with greater than 2,000 individuals per day looking for asylum, exceeding shelter capability and straining sources, its mayor stated Saturday.
“Town of El Paso solely has so many sources and we’ve come to … a breaking level proper now,” Mayor Oscar Leeser stated.
The crush of largely Venezuelan asylum seekers is a component of a bigger swell of immigrants who traveled harmful routes on buses and cargo trains to Mexican border cities close to San Diego, California, and the Texas cities of El Paso and Eagle Move.
Migrant numbers had plummeted in latest months, and the latest dramatic improve has generated a brand new wave of political assaults on U.S. President Joe Biden heading into the 2024 election.
Lesser informed a information convention that El Paso plans to open a brand new shelter, and on Saturday chartered 5 buses to take migrants to New York, Chicago and Denver.
Republican governors in Texas and Florida have been criticized for sending migrants to cities perceived as liberal comparable to New York and Sacramento. However Leeser, a Democrat, stated the entire migrants on the El Paso buses have been going voluntarily to the cities of their selection.
Leeser stated the Biden had been an excellent accomplice. However he stated the general U.S. immigration system was damaged.
Many migrants from Venezuela, he stated, lacked transportation to their desired locations, whereas El Paso’s present shelter homes solely 400 individuals, and should even be obtainable to assist the homeless.
As lately as six weeks in the past, about 350-400 individuals have been crossing into El Paso per day, however the previous few days have introduced 2,000 or extra.
Over the previous 10 days, the town has labored with the U.S. Border Patrol to offer shelter for six,500 individuals, he stated.
About two-thirds of these crossing into El Paso at present are single males, he stated. About 32% are households and simply 2% are unaccompanied kids.
“I feel it is actually necessary to notice that we’ve a damaged immigration system,” he stated. “It is the identical factor time and again.”
(Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Modifying by David Gregorio)