AUSTIN, Texas — A massive Border Patrol facility in El Paso erected to ensure immigrants were not detained outside has blown past its four-figure capacity, leaving hundreds of people to face near-freezing temperatures outdoors, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Since Friday, Border Patrol agents in El Paso, Texas, have interdicted more than 10,000 noncitizens who illegally entered the United States from the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez, according to data shared by the city of El Paso.
The Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector Central Processing Center was completed in 2020, while former President Donald Trump was still in office. It is legally permitted to hold 1,040 people inside. As of Tuesday morning, the CPC was at capacity with another 700 people outside, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman authorized to speak with the press.
“Although we’ve had pretty high numbers, we’re able to handle this surge because of the improvements that have been happening in sector since 2019,” the CBP official said.
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The immigrants crossing into El Paso since late last week have been primarily from Ecuador and Nicaragua, the official said. The unstable Nicaraguan government is not on diplomatic terms with the U.S., making returning Nicaraguans to the country impossible since both countries must be in agreement.
It means virtually all Nicaraguans without criminal records in the U.S. will be released by Border Patrol and allowed to remain in the country.
BREAKING NEWS: A huge migrant caravan of over 1,000 people crossed illegally into El Paso, TX last night, making it the largest single group ever seen in US. The city of El Paso reports Border Patrol now has over 5,000 in custody & has released hundreds to city streets. pic.twitter.com/NBoAypkZRd
— PSAFLIVE (@PSAFLIVE) December 12, 2022
The CBP said in a statement Tuesday that it releases immigrants to nongovernmental organizations that work with the city and state to shelter people in the short term, provide food and medical care, and help them make travel arrangements.
“All individuals released from CBP to continue their immigration process are screened for national security and public safety concerns,” CBP said. “Those individuals who are found to pose a public safety risk continue to be detained. CBP and ICE make custody determinations on a case-by-case basis and have in place strict reporting requirements for any individual released from custody pending the continuation of their immigration process.”
Border Patrol in El Paso is also flying immigrants to other regions of the border that are in a position to accept people. One such flight departed El Paso on Tuesday for Southern California, according to an agent involved in the planning.
A senior Border Patrol agent involved in the response in El Paso told the Washington Examiner on Monday that the rush is likely the result of immigrants attempting to get into the United States before pandemic public health policy Title 42 ends next week.
“They are trying to cross now due to T42 ending soon, which is going to make the process of getting released longer,” the second official wrote in a text message Monday. “The system that’s in place won’t be able to accommodate thousands of people on a daily basis.”
On Tuesday, a bipartisan group of House and Senate members joined forces to call on President Joe Biden to continue Title 42 beyond its December 20 end date.
“Never before in our nation’s history have we experienced this scope and scale of illegal border crossings, and we remain concerned that your administration has not provided sufficient support or resources to the men and women of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who are tasked with maintaining border security,” Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and John Cornyn (R-TX), as well as Reps. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) and Tony Gonzales (R-TX) wrote in a letter to to Biden.
Under Title 42, immigrants from Mexico and Central American countries are easily expelled at the border, while immigrants from countries further away have largely been released into the U.S.
Up until last week, Border Patrol agents in El Paso had deployed at least one Temporary Outdoor Processing Site (TOPS) container to downtown by the border. The express consignment shipping containers have multiple agents inside to begin processing people in custody as immigrants are apprehended.
The benefit of beginning processing at the border is that agents are able to see who can be immediately sent back to Mexico under Title 42 and send them back within an hour rather than taking them to CPC for processing only to be returned later that day.
TOPS containers have been moved to some Border Patrol stations to serve as back-up processing areas where people are being held outside.
However, Border Patrol does not have the capacity to detain immigrants for as long as it takes to process people under normal procedures, as opposed to now when immigrants in custody are typically released within 24 to 48 hours and facilities can constantly cycle people in and out of custody.
When Title 42 ends on Dec. 20, Border Patrol will not be able to return people across the border immediately and will arrest each illegal immigrant and detain them.
The temperature in El Paso dropped to 35 degrees Fahrenheit on Monday evening. Immigrants were provided Mylar aluminum blankets while they were held outside.
“Instead of people in tents, we were able to move them into areas where we have a little more infrastructure,” the official said.
The CPC was built after a lesser number of people illegally crossed the border in El Paso in 2019. Detention conditions came under national scrutiny as Border Patrol stations throughout the region became overwhelmed, resulting in immigrants being detained for weeks longer than the three-day limit, held outside in extreme heat, and unaccompanied children were held at a station in Clint, Texas.
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Democrats, led by Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) of El Paso, declared the situation to be a humanitarian crisis and criticized the Trump administration for holding immigrants outside and in deplorable conditions. Congress funded the creation of a massive facility that would serve as the one-point stop for processing and prevent a repeat of the 2019 incident.
The number of unauthorized immigrants apprehended after crossing into El Paso has surged over the past several months. Most immigrants were from Venezuela. The Biden administration implemented a policy change earlier this fall that allowed Border Patrol to send Venezuelans back to Mexico rather than have to take custody of each person and likely end up releasing Venezuelans into the U.S.
CBP wrote in an email that it had surged agents from the neighboring Big Bend Sector to El Paso, as well as Office of Field Operations officers who work at the ports of entry, to help process immigrants in custody.
