Migrants are flooding the shelters and the streets at the US border.

Alejandra Arredondo

El Paso (USA), December 19. Migrants flock to shelters and are forced to sleep on the streets of El Paso (Texas, USA), a city on the border with Mexico where thousands have arrived in recent weeks before the address hangs on Wednesday the 42nd.

This is the number of migrants who have arrived in El Paso, which borders Ciudad Juarez in Mexico, as the mayor, Oscar Lesser, declared a state of emergency on Saturday in order to use more resources and create more shelters to house these people.

The measure came just days after the lifting of Title 42, a health rule by which the United States expels the majority of immigrants to Mexico or their countries of origin during the pandemic.

Three days have passed since Alessandro Cordero, 20, entered the United States, at the same time he was sleeping on the street with eight other migrants he met on his flight from Venezuela.

“We walked all over El Paso looking for a place in the shelters, but they all collapsed, and there is no room,” the youngster, born in Caracas, told EFE.

The place where they sleep and spend the day is a small alley between the bus stop and an orange brick building. On the sidewalk are several bags with clothes and blankets that El Paso residents have brought them.

Cordero does not want to stay in El Paso, but rather go to another city like Denver or New York, where he can work and earn money to send him to Venezuela, where he left behind a 4-year-old son.

“We do not want to burden the government, we want it to open the doors and allow those who want to work in it,” he explained.

With the emergency declared, the city also announced that it would establish an operations center, a plan to assist and protect immigrants in the face of severe weather.

Meanwhile, El Pasuan stepped in to help the newcomers.

AT 9:00 a.m. local time (4:00 p.m. GMT), a pickup truck is waiting near the main El Paso bus terminal, where dozens of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have spent several nights outdoors in temperatures minus 10 degrees Celsius. .

A young man shouted: “Come on, guys.” A tall man with wrinkled dark skin and a pair of aviator glasses emerges from the car. Bring a box full of gloves, jackets, and coats.

His name is Ted Rodriguez and he has come to help those who, like him many years ago, left their countries to come to the United States.

“I had extra unused clothes, winter things and I wanted to come and leave them, to see who left, because they have a lot of cold and cold days coming,” the 75-year-old, originally from Mexico, explained to EFE.

Fifteen minutes later, another car drove up, a red sedan, and a couple got out: Alejandra and Ernesto, both retired and of Mexican descent. They bring a pot of hot coffee, a bag of oranges, another bagel and a burrito.

“We’ve seen on the news how much these people are needed (…) and we want to do our part and give them something,” Ernesto, who has lived in El Paso for more than 40 years, told EFE.

capacity shelters

Starting Wednesday, when Title 42 is lifted, the number of asylum seekers arriving in El Paso is expected to increase: According to estimates by the city council itself, it could go from about 2,500 immigrants per day to nearly 6,000.

Lawmakers, such as Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents the district that includes El Paso in the US Congress, have called on the federal government to allocate more money for humanitarian aid at the border.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., has ordered President Joe Biden’s administration to overturn health regulations imposed by the Donald Trump government (2017-2021), which have allowed more than 2.5 million immigrants to be expelled since March 2020, according to the data. From the International Rescue Committee.

The court order demolishes one of Trump’s last remaining impediments to immigration and presents a challenge to Biden’s executive authority at a time when record arrests of immigrants are being made at the border with Mexico.

In October alone, there were 230,000 arrests at the US-Mexico border, with more than 78,400 expulsions from US soil. EFE

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