Biden Administration Builds Tent Facility to House Illegal Immigrants Being Processed by CBP
A tent facility is rising in Texas to serve as a destination for illegal immigrants as numbers waiting to cross the border rise.
Migrants are flocking to a makeshift camp in Matamoros, Mexico, across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, “because people think that if you’re in the camp, you’ll be able to enter (the United States) first,” Honduran asylum seeker Oscar Borjas said, according to Reuters.
Some who cross might make it to Donna, Texas, where U.S. Customs and Border Patrol is building a tent facility amid renovations to the Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, according to Fox News.
“The Donna location was chosen because it is central to Border Patrol stations throughout the Rio Grande Valley Sector,” a CBP representative said.
In addition to the new camp being opened, the Department of Health and Human Services is planning to reactivate a temporary facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, to care for unaccompanied migrant children over the age of 13. The facility can house about 700 illegal immigrant teenagers.
President Joe Biden came into office promising to undo former President Donald Trump’s tough policies to halt illegal immigration, and he has signed executive orders to revamp the process by which illegal immigrants enter the U.S.
Although in its official statement, the administration has urged migrants to wait until all of the new administration’s policies are in place before crossing into the U.S., that has not meant much to people trying to enter illegally.
“There has been a significant increase in asylum seekers arriving, and we know that the numbers are only going to keep rising dramatically,” said Kate Clark, senior director for immigration services at Jewish Family Service of San Diego, according to The New York Times.
Frustration is also growing among those who interpreted Biden’s campaign rhetoric as a signal that the border would be open.
“The migrants are starting not to trust advocates because we told them the Biden administration would start processing them shortly after inauguration — because that was the impression we were getting from the transition team,” said Erika Pinheiro, a lawyer who works for the group Al Otro Lado.
Biden’s push to wipe away Trump’s policies has brought concerns from Republicans.
“In a matter of weeks, President Joe Biden has rolled back a substantial part of the gains it took years for the Trump Administration to achieve in the fight to stop illegal immigration,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina tweeted Feb. 2.
“The refusal to continue building the border wall and changing Trump asylum policies requiring migrants to wait in Mexico for their court date are formulas for disaster and will create massive future runs on the border.”
The refusal to continue building the border wall and changing Trump asylum policies requiring migrants to wait in Mexico for their court date are formulas for disaster and will create massive future runs on the border.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 2, 2021
Finally, Democrats should realize – in spite of their intense personal dislike for him – that what President Trump did in securing our border and reforming our asylum laws worked.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) February 2, 2021
A letter from 51 House Republicans has warned Biden that his policies are harming the nation, according to Fox News.
“This is not a political game — we implore you not to let ideology blind your Administration to the need to secure the border, to defend Americans, and to prevent another cartel-empowering humanitarian crisis,” the letter said.
The letter noted that Border Patrol agents are seeing a rise in illegal immigrants who believe that now that Biden is in office, they can get into the U.S. without consequences.
House Republicans Letter on… by Fox News
“Further it is concerning to see your administration perceive our border security issues as a political game instead of the very serious threat open borders provide to Americans and the migrants seeking to come here,” the letter said.
“We are once again on the brink of a huge humanitarian crisis, endangering the lives of migrants and law enforcement officers at the hands of the violent cartels that your administration has further empowered,” it said.
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