U.S. Customs and Border Protection acknowledged Monday that it is exploring additional locations to house the thousands of illegal immigrants who continue to flood across the southwestern U.S. border, and that it may need this expanded capacity for some time to deal with the crisis.
CBP, which is housed in the Department of Homeland Security, said over the weekend that it has opened a " temporary holding facility" for immigrants in Tornillo, Texas. That announcement said the plan is to keep that facility, which can hold 500 people, for 30 days, "pending any changes in the volume of people arriving at the ports or crossing the border."
But in a separate statement to the Washington Examiner, a CBP spokesman indicated that facility could be open for more than 30 days, and that other sites were being scouted out to hold immigrants.
"CBP will continue to assess and re-examine the needs to expand or retract this temporary facility regularly to support the current levels of people in custody," said spokesman Roger Maier, who is based in Texas.
Maier wasn't specific about the chances that the Tornillo facility would stay open for more than 30 days. But he did say it would be closed when the immigration surge has dropped to "levels that CBP ports of entry and Border Patrol stations can accommodate.
If the latest border statistics are any sign, CBP may not see normal levels of immigration for a while. In October, the first month of fiscal year 2017, CBP apprehended 46,195 people, the most in October in the last five years, and nearly 10,000 more than in October 2014, which was the year the border surge turned into a crisis.
Total apprehensions in August, September and October were higher this year than they were in any of the last five years.
That could mean the new facility in Tornillo stays open for more than the 30 days CBP is hoping. And it might also mean more facilities are needed — the last few months have seen border apprehensions running anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 more per month than officials are used to seeing, which could call for additional "temporary" facilities.
Maier again declined to be specific about whether new facilities would soon be coming online, but did admit that "contingencies" are being considered.
"CBP continues to explore alternate locations as contingencies to support CBP Port and Border Patrol Station operations throughout the Southwest border," he said.
"The ports/stations were not designed to address the volume we are currently seeing," Maier added.
