WASHINGTON: U.S. immigration authorities reported a significant uptick in unauthorized border crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, particularly in areas like Eagle Pass, Texas, where the mayor has issued a state of emergency.
U.S. Border Patrol officers apprehended about 9,000 migrants along the entire border in a 24-hour period, according to media reports.
VOA asked Border Patrol to confirm the number of apprehensions, but an official, who spoke on background, said they were waiting to release monthly migrant encounter numbers.
The noticeable rise in migrant arrivals in Eagle Pass strained local resources and overwhelmed already crowded facilities.
On Wednesday evening between 500 and 800 migrants, mostly from Venezuela, were waiting to be processed by Border Patrol officials under the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras International Bridge, one of the two bridges in Eagle Pass.
A U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told VOA on background — a method often used by U.S. officials to share information with reporters without being identified — that CBP suspended crossings at Eagle Pass to help with the influx of migrants over the last few days.
“But we anticipate reopening it once they [border officers] are done dealing with [migrants] today,” the official said by phone, adding that traffic was being diverted to another bridge in the same area.
“There are times that we have to close the ports. We just simply divert traffic to other ports of entry,” the spokesperson said.
After the increased number of unauthorized crossings, Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas Jr. signed an emergency declaration.
In recent years, the region has become accustomed to regulating migration as it became a heavily used point for newcomers to cross into the U.S.
“The emergency declaration grants us the ability to request financial resources to provide additional services caused by the influx of undocumented immigrants,” Salinas wrote in Wednesday’s emergency declaration.
(VOA)
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