In recent weeks, an increasing number of migrants have been released to a network of hospitality centers run by Annunciation House, a faith-based group that provides food and shelter and helps migrants arrange their travel out of El Paso. “We want to make sure the county can act in an emergency situation.” “We are looking to see how the county can fill the need to coordinate travel arrangements – either to the airport or bus stop,” Stout said. The County Commissioners Court is set to discuss the CBP releases at a special meeting on Thursday. He did not recall being told that the releases would be to the streets, and at 5 a.m. It wasn’t clear which agency released the migrants at the bus station.Įl Paso County Commissioner David Stout said Sunday that the county was advised late last week that releases would start occurring as CBP holding and detention facilities were at capacity. Spokespeople for ICE and Border Patrol didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. “I don’t know why I was released, or when I have to go back to court,” he said. He said he was released on an “order of release on recognizance.” ICE releases immigrants on recognizance provided that the person says where they are going, agrees to report to a hearing when required and has a place to go. He lived in Chile but is originally from Haiti. He crossed into El Paso from Juárez on Friday evening. Most of the migrants had cell phones that they were using to contact family or buy a plane or bus ticket to their final destination.Īmong those who went from the bus station to the airport was Frankel, 45. Most of the migrants were from Turkey, Haiti, Brazil and Peru, among other countries, according to a person who was helping them at the bus station. On Sunday, the release was comparatively smooth. That release included many families with children and the shelters in El Paso were not prepared to help the hundreds of people released. Sunday was the first large release of migrants to the streets of El Paso since Christmas week 2018 when hundreds of people were dropped off at the Greyhound bus station Downtown. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in the El Paso area are usually taken to a shelter run by the Annunciation House, which works with churches and others to provide food and temporary housing until migrants can travel to join family elsewhere in the United States.īut when Annunciation House shelters are at capacity, the federal agencies in the past have released migrants on the street, often near bus stations. “The good thing is that I am traveling by myself,” he said. He is scheduled to arrive in Plant City, Florida, late Monday. He will wait all day inside the bus station. “I had enough money to buy my bus ticket, but now I don’t have any money for the rest of the day, not even to eat.”Ĭristian’s bus was set to depart El Paso for Houston at 10 p.m. “I have my bus ticket, I’m going to Florida where I have family,” he said in Portuguese. El Paso Matters only identifies migrants by first name because many are fleeing violence and fear for their safety.Ĭristian left his home in Brazil on May 8 to seek asylum in the United States. Belo Horizonte is about 350 miles north of Rio de Janeiro. He is from Belo Horizonte, Brazil, the sixth largest city in that country. (Robert Moore/El Paso Matters)Īmong those remaining at the bus station was Cristian, who arrived at a U.S. Three migrants caught a cab to El Paso International Airport Sunday morning, after they were dropped off by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Downtown El Paso bus station. Most of the people who had been dropped off took taxis to the airport to get a plane ticket. By 9 a.m., only about a dozen people remained at the bus station, waiting for buses coming later in the day. at the Tornado bus station on West Paisano Drive in Downtown El Paso, said a person at the bus station, who asked not to be identified. On Sunday, the migrants were released at about 5 a.m. The release, which left migrants to fend for themselves in finding food or to get plane or bus tickets out of El Paso, is a warning to local governments that El Paso is not prepared for a potential humanitarian crisis in the coming weeks, said Ruben Garcia, the founder of Annunciation House, which has been providing care for migrants and refugees for more than 40 years. Border enforcement agents dropped off more than 100 migrants at a Downtown El Paso bus station on Sunday, the first time in more than three years that people were released from custody in El Paso without going to a nongovernmental organization for food and shelter.
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