Biden admin erects tent city in Texas to handle influx of illegal immigrants

Published 1 hour ago
Biden admin erects tent city in Texas to handle influx of illegal immigrants
The facility will supplement operations as a nearby processing center undergoes renovations.
By Brittany De Lea | Fox News

The Biden administration announced this week that it opened a soft-sided facility for immigrants in Donna, Texas, as Republican lawmakers warn of a "rising crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a statement to Fox News, a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said the agency’s Centralized Processing Center in McAllen, Texas, is undergoing renovation, necessitating the additional facilities.

The primary purpose of the Donna location will be to process individuals in U.S. Border Patrol custody.

"The Donna location was chosen because it is central to Border Patrol stations throughout the Rio Grande Valley Sector," a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol said.

As previously reported by Fox News, the Department of Health and Human Services also plans to reactivate a temporary Influx Care Facility in Carrizo Springs, Texas, for the potential care of unaccompanied alien children detained at the country’s Southwest border.

The facility will initially be able to accommodate about 700 migrant children, though capacity can be added if necessary. The government expects to begin housing unaccompanied alien children who have been cleared of COVID-19 quarantine in Carrizo Springs in slightly over a week. It will not house children under the age of 13.

The centers are opening as apprehensions at the border climb amid hopes of a loosening of restrictions under the current administration, as previously reported by Fox News.

The Department of Homeland Security noted that there has been a steady increase in border encounters since April, triggered by conditions brought on by the pandemic and natural disasters.

House Republicans wrote a letter to Biden this week cautioning of a "rising illegal immigration crisis" at the southern border. Lawmakers said CBP officials have seen average daily flow increase to 3,500 from 2,000 earlier last month.

By law, the government is required to provide care for unaccompanied alien children who have no immigration status in the U.S. no legal guardian in the U.S., and who are not yet 18 years old.

Published 3 hours ago
Biden administration to allow 25,000 asylum-seekers to cross US-Mexico border while cases are pending
Migrants will be processed for entry starting Feb. 19
By Greg Norman | Fox News

Around 25,000 asylum-seekers who were ordered under former President Donald Trump to wait in Mexico while U.S. immigration courts processed their requests will now be allowed to cross the border starting next week, the Biden administration announced Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security said the change in plans for those currently placed in Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) -- often referred to as "Remain in Mexico" -- will go into effect on Feb. 19. The Trump administration introduced the policy in January 2019 and said it was critical to reversing a surge of asylum-seekers that peaked that year.

"As President Biden has made clear, the U.S. government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system," Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement. "This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values."

The Biden administration estimates that around 25,000 individuals enrolled in the protocols still have active cases.

"Individuals should not take any action at this time and should remain where they are to await further instructions," Homeland Security said Friday. "We will soon announce a virtual registration process that will be accessible from any location."

"Individuals outside of the United States who were not returned to Mexico under MPP or who do not have active immigration court cases will not be considered for participation in this program and should await further instructions," the department added.

Homeland Security also warned migrants Friday that the announcement "should not be interpreted as an opening for people to migrate irregularly to the United States.

"Eligible individuals will only be allowed to enter through designated ports of entry at designated times," it added.  

American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp and Squared Communications CEO Michael Meehan react on 'America's Newsroom'

Administration officials declined to name the ports of entry out of fear they may encourage a rush of people to those locations, according to The Associated Press.

Those who are processed under these new changes will be tested for COVID-19 before entering the U.S., Homeland Security said, yet it is unclear what the protocol will be for those whose results come back positive. Fox News has reached out to The White House for further comment.

On Biden's first day in office, Homeland Security had suspended the MPP policy for new arrivals. Since then, some asylum-seekers picked up at the border have been released in the U.S. with notices to appear in court.

Hearings for people enrolled in "Remain in Mexico" have also been suspended since June due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Advocates have argued that communication problems, including lack of working addresses in Mexico, caused some to miss hearings and lose their cases as a result.

Raul Ortiz, deputy chief of the Border Patrol, told the Associated Press Tuesday that more than 3,000 people had been stopped crossing the border illegally in each of the previous 10 days, compared to a daily average of 2,426 in January.

About 50 to 80 adults and children have been arriving daily since Jan. 27 at Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, which temporarily houses people released by the Border Patrol, said Sister Norma Pimentel, the group’s executive director. The charity tests for COVID-19 and sends anyone who tests positive to a hotel for isolation.

Jewish Family Service of San Diego housed 191 asylum-seekers the first 10 days of February after they were released by U.S. authorities, up from 144 in January and 54 in December, said Eitan Peled, the group’s border services advocate. They are quarantined in hotels for 10 days.

These Are the Three American Cities the Biden Admin Is Planning to Start Releasing Migrants In
Julio Rosas| @Julio_Rosas11|Posted: Feb 15, 2021 11:30 AM

The Department of Homeland Security will begin phase one of the Biden administration's new approach to immigration and asylum seekers on Friday by releasing thousands of migrants in three American cities over a two-week period.

The new plan, in stark contrast to the Trump administration's "Remain In Mexico" policy, will have DHS start releasing illegal aliens in San Diego, California; El Paso, Texas; and Brownsville, Texas, according to Breitbart and the Associated Press. Around 25,000 migrants will be let into the country through the first phase.

DHS plans to process and release about 300 migrants a day in both San Diego and El Paso, with plans to release about 100 migrants a day in Brownsville.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on Friday, when the new plan was announced, they hope to have an online system to have illegal aliens apply for asylum virtually so they do not need to present themselves at the ports of entry on the southwest border.

"As President Biden has made clear, the U.S. government is committed to rebuilding a safe, orderly, and humane immigration system," Mayorkas said in a statement. "This latest action is another step in our commitment to reform immigration policies that do not align with our nation’s values. Especially at the border, however, where capacity constraints remain serious, changes will take time. Individuals who are not eligible under this initial phase should wait for further instructions and not travel to the border. Due to the current pandemic, restrictions at the border remain in place and will be enforced."

Whether all of the aliens will be tested for COVID-19 remains to be seen. As Breitbart reported, DHS internal communications had no mention of testing, but AP reported Liz Lizamama, a spokeswoman for International Organization for Migration, said the organization will help with testing people before they enter the United States.

Illegal aliens have already been released in the United States under the reinstated "catch and release" policy in some areas of Texas. Those illegal aliens have not undergone testing for COVID-19.

Tents with furnaces and mess halls and massage parlors.. How much is THAT costing us taxpayers?

NYPost: Biden's getting exactly the border crisis he asked for.

It only took 6 wks to turn a secure southern border to a national security disaster.

Thanks, Biden - this will all come back to haunt you~

Published 43 mins ago
Border encounters top 100,000 in February as migrant crisis spirals
The Biden administration has called the numbers 'overwhelming'
By Adam Shaw, John Roberts | Fox News

Law enforcement at the border encountered more than 100,000 migrants at the border in February, as the Biden administration faces a dramatically escalating crisis – and admits the numbers are "overwhelming."

A source told Fox News that the total border encounters for the month were 100,441. Two separate sources had previously told Fox the numbers would be around the 100,000 number. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will announce the numbers later Wednesday.

More than 70% of those encountered were expelled via the Title 42 public health order that allows authorities to quickly return migrants to country of travel, the source said. Activist groups have urged the administration to end Title 42 expulsions, but so far it has not done so.

The numbers are the latest sign that the surge in migrants risks turning into a tidal wave by the time peak migration season hits later this year. In the 2019 border crisis, the height was in May when agents encountered 144,000 migrants. In February that year, apprehensions were at 76,000 and 57,000 in January.

The administration has been scrambling to deal with a migrant crisis and has seen a spike in child migrants – the number of migrant children in custody along the border has tripled in the past two weeks to more than 3,250. Meanwhile, it has been opening more facilities, including looking at opening a Virginia military base – and ending capacity limits due to COVID-19.

The administration has come under fire from Republicans, who have said the dramatic reversal of Trump-era policies has incentivized migrants to come north, and made the U.S. less able to handle the surge

Biden’s administration has ended policies like the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which kept migrants south of the border while waiting for their hearings – as well as asylum agreements with Northern Triangle countries. It has also narrowed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) priorities for arrests and deportations. Meanwhile, the White House has proposed a sweeping immigration bill that will grant a pathway to citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants.

The administration has denied there is a crisis, calling it a "challenge" instead – although DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week admitted the numbers were "overwhelming" and asked staff to volunteer to help CBP.

It has also been trying to spread the message that the border is not open, and that migrants should not make the journey.

"We are not saying, ‘Don’t come,’" Mayorkas said last week. "We are saying, ‘Don’t come now because we will be able to deliver a safe and orderly process to them as quickly as possible.'"

Roberta Jackson, the special coordinator for the southern border, on Tuesday repeated the claim that the border was "not open," adding that part of the plan was to fund measures with a $4 billion package that would tackle the "root causes" of migration.

Asked if it was a coincidence that the surge coincided with Biden-era policies, Jackson said migrants were responding to "hope."

"There was a hope for a more humane policy after four years of pent up demand, so I don't know if I would call that a coincidence but the idea that a more humane policy would be in place would have driven people to make that decision, but more importantly it definitely drove smugglers to express disinformation, spread disinformation about what was now possible," she said at a White House press briefing.

Republicans, however, have blamed the administration squarely for the crisis. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor that Mayorkas and the administration was "failing" at the border, and took issue with his warning for migrants that now was not the time to travel.

"Now is not the time to come? Well when is the right time to break federal law? There is going to be a good time and people need to just be patient and wait for their signal?" he asked. "What on earth are they talking about?"

Temple wrote:

Obi--
I believe it would do you good to spend a month in tent city, yup..
Please do so ..

I don't speak Spanish.

None of my Democrat friends has mentioned the fact that Biden created a new border crisis!

Not a word!

Migrant children’s camp at 729% capacity

Biden’s border policy is abysmal

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/migrant-children-detained-in-overcrowded-conditions/

Biden Admin Restricts Border Patrol Contact with Media during Migrant Surge
Zachary Evans
Wed, March 17, 2021, 6:54 AM

The Biden administration is limiting the information U.S. Border Patrol can share with media outlets during a surge of illegal immigration at the southern border, NBC News reported on Wednesday.

The restrictions have been passed down verbally and are viewed as an unofficial gag order, four current and two former U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials told NBC. Border Patrol agents have been instructed to deny all media ride-alongs, while even local media are instructed to direct questions to CBP’s Washington, D.C., office.

The hold has not entirely prevented footage of migrants from being leaked. Two officials said that a March video shared by Representative Henry Cuellar (R., Texas), which showed a line of migrant children and women waiting to be ferried across the Rio Grande, was provided by border agents. A Cuellar spokesperson said the representative was unable to disclose the source of the footage.

The unofficial gag order comes as media outlets have requested pictures from inside Border Patrol detention facilities, where over 4,200 migrant children are currently being held while waiting to be transferred to other shelters. So far, outlets have not received footage from inside detention centers.

“Across the federal government, certain employees are designated spokespeople for their respective agencies and public statements are vetted to ensure accuracy,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesman told NBC. “This standard and process has been followed at DHS since the Department’s inception and across bipartisan administrations.”

The news comes after DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas predicted that the surge of migrants at the border will break a 20-year record and continue to strain resources.

“The situation at the southwest border is difficult,” Mayorkas said in a statement. “We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years. We are expelling most single adults and families. We are not expelling unaccompanied children.”

Over 100,000 migrants attempted to cross the border in February, according to USCBP, up 28 percent from January.

NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN “JAIL-LIKE” CUSTODY AT THE BORDER SOARS ANOTHER 31% IN LESS THAN A WEEK; CHILDREN REPORT SLEEPING ON FLOORS
by Kevin Ryan

Border Patrol now has more than 4,200 unaccompanied migrant children in custody at the border, including “in jail-like stations unfit to house minors,” CBS is reporting this evening.  That represents a 31% increase from early last week, when the agency was holding more than 3,200 minors.

Children interviewed say they’ve been sleeping on the floor, going hungry, only showering once in as many as seven days, and not being able to call family members.  “One of them shared that he could only see the sun when he showered,” said a lawyer at the National Center for Youth Law.

Most of the facilities were built to detain migrant men.  Even Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has said the children are in detention facilities that are “no place for a child.”

A further 9,000 children are being held in facilities run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement.  The number released to family is being eclipsed by the number coming into custody each week.  The agency is now considering housing children at a military installation in Virginia and an airfield in California overseen by NASA.

Other startling details revealed tonight:

• Nearly 3,000 of the unaccompanied children in Border Patrol custody have been held longer than the 72 hour legal limit.  That is double the number from just one week ago.

• The children are spending an average of 117 hours in the Border Patrol facilities, a full 62% longer than the legal limit.

• An average of 565 unaccompanied minors entered Border Patrol custody each day during the past week.  

• Border Patrol sectors in the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, Yuma, and Tucson, are all over capacity.  The Rio Grande Valley sector alone is currently at 363% capacity.

In February, 10,000 unaccompanied children entered U.S. border custody, and arrivals are said to be continuing to increase this month.

New asylum seeker camp appears in Tijuana
Associated Press•Mar 19, 2021

In barely a month, the newest migrant camp on Mexico's border with the United States has grown to about 1,500 people, taking up every space in a plaza at the two countries' largest international crossing. (March 19)

CBP Asks to Fly Migrants to Canadian Border for Processing amid Surge: Report
Zachary Evans, National Review
Sat, March 20, 2021, 9:39 AM

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have requested airplanes to fly migrants to the U.S.-Canadian border for processing amid a surge in illegal crossings at the southern border, the Washington Post reported on Friday.

Border officials asked CBP to make the request to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) after 1,000 migrants, including unaccompanied minors, crossed the Rio Grande into South Texas on Friday morning, while another 1,000 who crossed on Thursday night were still waiting to be processed, according to an email reviewed by the Post.

The agency has not determined which northern states would receive the migrants. Two Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed that the action was under consideration.

The influx of at least 2,000 migrants into the area through Thursday night and Friday morning came as CBP struggled to receive new arrivals, with many migrants waiting hours outdoors before processing.

A record number of over 4,500 unaccompanied minors are currently being held in Border Patrol detention facilities. As of Wednesday, over 9,500 migrant children were held in shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

DHS secretary Alejandro Mayorkas traveled to the southern border on Friday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to review the situation. One of those lawmakers, Senator Chris Murphy (D., Conn.), wrote on Twitter on Friday that the Biden administration “is trying their best to uphold the rule of law with humanity,” blaming the crisis in part on “the mess Trump left them.”

Senator Rob Portman (R., Ohio), another lawmaker on the trip, said that the surge of migrants began because of the Biden administration’s “dismantling of the previous administration’s policies with no consideration of the ramifications.”

President Biden has rescinded several Trump-era immigration restrictions, including the “Remain in Mexico” policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed in the U.S. The Biden administration has also advocated a sweeping immigration reform bill that would establish a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants currently living in the U.S.

However, while Biden and other administration officials have warned migrants not to make the journey north, Mayorkas predicted earlier this week that the current influx will break a 20-year record.

“Biden promised us that everything was going to change,” Gladys Oneida Pérez Cruz, a migrant from Honduras, told the New York Times on Sunday. “He hasn’t done it yet, but he is going to be a good president for migrants.” Pérez and her son, who has cerebral palsy, attempted to cross the border but were expelled back to Mexico.

re: CBP Asks to Fly Migrants to Canadian Border for Processing amid Surge: Report

Quote :

Just in two paragraphs we are talking 16,000 migrants, with 2,000 in less than 24 hours. This is insane and is just the beginning. At what point is Biden going to say "uncle"? Sounds like they will be shipped all over the states, and you can just see the criminal gangs rubbing their hands and tons of new opportunities to take advantage. I'm sure human traffickers are also licking their chops.