SAN ANTONIO — U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said Wednesday the agency is adjusting its resources to deal with the continued surge of border-crossers amid gridlock in Congress on the issue.
McAleenan, speaking to reporters in El Paso, Texas, said that region has been inundated with migrants over the past six months. As a result, the commissioner is surging 750 CBP officers to help Border Patrol agents in the region, which includes all of New Mexico.
“CBP is facing an unprecedented humanitarian and border crisis all along our southwest border, and nowhere has that crisis manifest more acutely than here in El Paso,” the commissioner told reporters in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday.
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He warned local residents should expect traffic to worsen at El Paso’s six ports of entry but said the agency had its hands tied in terms of what it can do when it must process thousands of people monthly.
“There will be impacts to traffic at the border. There will be a slowdown in the processing of trade. There will be wait times in our passenger and vehicle lanes,” McAleenan said. “This is required to help us manage our operating crisis.”
CBP is also extending medical, food, and transportation contracts in sectors that need more assistance.
Large groups of more than 100 people began arriving on buses in the vicinity last fall. In Antelope Wells, a remote part of Hidalgo County, N.M., one or more buses arrive on the Mexico side of the border late at night.
Migrants then cross over the vehicle barrier and surrender to a CBP employee who mans the closed port overnight. Despite illegally crossing, those who illegally enter the U.S. may claim a credible fear of returning home.
Processing a Central American family of two takes several hours compared to around 15 minutes for a Mexican adult. The large majority of all apprehensions of the past six months have been non-Mexican.
Roughly 60,000 of the 100,000 people apprehended or encountered at the southern border in March are families, McAleenan said.
Ninety percent of credible fear applicants are deemed candidates to apply for asylum within days and begin that process shortly after.
