The 21-year-old Dylan Torres Reyes spent three nights on the sidewalk in front of the main bus terminal in the city of El Paso, shivering in the freezing Texas winter, in the United States.
“It’s been really, really cold in here and this is all I’ve got to wear,” he told the BBC, pointing to the thin blue hooded coat he was wearing. “It’s been hard to sleep like this.”
Reyes is Venezuelan and he is far from the only one.
Around him, dozens of other immigrants gather in small groups, two blocks from downtown El Paso. Among them are women and children sleeping in the open air, in temperatures that drop below freezing at night. They are a small part of a growing number of immigrants in the city.
Local authorities and humanitarian organizations say they are struggling to cope with the situation. Many are from Nicaragua and Venezuela, but many come from other countries, from all over Latin America.
Most immigrants, like Reyes, look forward to the opportunity to travel to other parts of the United States to find their families after the long, difficult and extremely dangerous trip to the border.
“I want to go to Chicago… I have no idea how I’m going to get there,” says Reyes. “I’m trying to get bus tickets, but I don’t know how I’m going to do it.”
He adds that the cold nights and uncertainty pale in comparison to what he has faced in recent months – including a trek through the jungle in which several comrades died, as well as abuse and extortion attempts at the hands of corrupt police.
“I’m happy to be here. The treatment here has been excellent,” he says. “It’s just been really, really cold.”
What happened to Title 42?
As El Paso grapples with an escalating humanitarian crisis, the likely end of Trump-era immigration policy has officials and NGOs worried that they may not be able to cope with the increased influx of migrants and asylum seekers.
Known as Title 42, the policy gives the government the power to automatically expel undocumented immigrants. She prevented thousands of people from crossing the border between Mexico and the United States.
That policy should have been ended on December 21, but the US Supreme Court temporarily extended it.
On Monday (19), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts, temporarily prohibited the end of Title 42, pending the decision on an emergency appeal filed by states governed by Republicans. They asked for the policy to remain in effect.
On Tuesday (20), the Biden government asked the Supreme Court to ignore the Republicans’ request to keep Title 42 in force, arguing that there is no more justification for its maintenance. But he also asked the court to postpone the end of the policy until at least December 27, so it could prepare for the influx of immigrants.
If the government manages to be complied with, the policy will end on December 27. But the Supreme Court’s intervention has brought little meaning to the streets of El Paso, where shelters and humanitarian services are already overwhelmed.
City officials say they are doing their best to help house and transport migrants cleared by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on a daily basis, but the growing numbers are straining resources.
Only in the week of December 12th to 18th, more than 10,300 immigrants entered the city, against 8,000 in the previous week.
Local and federal officials estimate that if Title 42 were to expire, the daily number of immigrant arrests in El Paso would rise from 1,500 to 4,000 to 6,000 – and the city would be unable to meet them with the resources. existing.
“It’s not manageable. Shelters and community efforts are overwhelmed,” said Fernando GarcÃa, executive director of the Border Network for Human Rights. “We have an immediate problem.”
“We can’t wait to see if Title 42 expires or not,” he adds. “Here and now, we have people in El Paso, on the streets. Children, women, without warm clothes, without food, without water and without money to be transported to their relatives.”
emergency state
On Sunday (18), the mayor of El Paso, Oscar Leeser (Democrat), declared a state of emergency for seven days. He says the ruling gives local authorities the resources to deal with the influx of migrants sleeping on the city’s streets.
“We want to make sure people are treated with dignity,” the mayor told reporters. “We want to make sure everyone is safe.”
Leeser warned that the city’s shelters were already at full capacity and estimated that there were another 20,000 migrants at the border, prepared to cross into the United States.
Vowing to “prepare for whatever comes,” Leeser said city officials were still preparing emergency plans, including converting large buildings into makeshift shelters and chartering buses to help transport migrants to other Texas cities.
But much of the day-to-day work of helping immigrants has fallen to a handful of NGOs and activist groups. One such organization is the El Pasoans Fighting Hunger Food Bank, which has been feeding dozens of migrants at a time at locations across the city.
“This is certainly a humanitarian crisis,” says the organization’s chief executive, Susan Goodell. “The number of immigrants in our community is huge. I’ve never seen numbers like these.”
Goodell says his organization has so far managed to cope with the number of immigrants, but it is struggling to keep up with the crisis and has had to ask other organizations in other parts of the United States for help.
help from neighbors
Residents of El Paso and neighboring areas told the BBC that the increase in the flow of migrants has been visible in recent days. Some described constant noise at night, crowded bus stations or finding people sleeping next to their house or vehicle when they left their homes in the morning.
About a quarter of the region’s population is made up of foreigners, and many residents sympathize with the conditions of immigrants.
“They’re just trying to better themselves. If you were in their shoes, you’d want to come to the United States for freedom or a job,” says Mark Casavantes, a lifelong resident of El Paso, just a few blocks from the US border. the Mexico.
“They are very peaceful and respectful people. They didn’t really cause any problems,” says Casavantes.
Sue Dickson is a volunteer with Annunciation House, an organization that provides shelter for immigrants in El Paso. She says that “more people’s minds would be opened” if they saw the daily reality of the situation of immigrants in their city.
“These are people who are desperate, who need asylum, who need to flee violence and political oppression,” she says. “They are coming here for safety.”
Federal officials have repeatedly stated that the government — particularly, the Department of Homeland Security — is preparing for the possible cancellation of Title 42.
El Paso aid workers, meanwhile, question whether lifting Title 42 will bring the sudden spike in immigration predicted by some politicians. Many observe that any mass border crossings would not be normal. But the potential for other peaks made many people anxious.
“The forecast numbers make us very nervous,” says Goodell. “We are preparing ourselves in the best possible way.”
This text was originally published here.
With a wealth of experience honed over 4+ years in journalism, I bring a seasoned voice to the world of news. Currently, I work as a freelance writer and editor, always seeking new opportunities to tell compelling stories in the field of world news.
