CBP in El Paso helping manage large-scale migrant surge in Arizona

EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Thousands of migrants are crossing between ports of entry in Eagle Pass, Texas, and Southern Arizona.

In the El Paso-Juarez corridor, however, migrant traffic remained “normal” as of Tuesday, sources on both sides of the Rio Grande told Border Report. The City of El Paso’s online migrant dashboard shows migrant apprehensions in the region have remained in the 700 to 800 daily range in the past three weeks. In Juarez, only individuals and small groups of up to six people were observed crossing the Rio Grande near Gate 36 of the U.S. border wall late morning and afternoon.

That doesn’t mean El Paso federal agents, facilities and technology aren’t being used to help manage the surge elsewhere on the Southwestern border.

A federal source in Arizona confirmed to Border Report that several buses carrying migrants apprehended in the Tucson Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol have been sent to El Paso for processing and expedited removal. These include Mexican nationals amenable to repatriation if they don’t show cause to remain in the U.S. after crossing between ports of entry, and possibly some Central Americans, Border Report learned.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection in January opened a large-scale migrant processing facility in Northeast El Paso. In addition to providing overflow space to process migrants during unexpected surges locally, the facility has received “lateral” transfers and processed migrants from overwhelmed sectors on and off.

“CBP is prioritizing all available resources in response to human smugglers endangering these vulnerable people. To process individuals as safely and expeditiously as possible, unprocessed individuals may be transported via air or ground to other sectors,” a federal source in El Paso told Border Report on Tuesday.

These sector-to-sector transfers are determined according to manpower and housing capacity in each region and facility, according to CBP.

The agency confirmed the Department of Homeland Security is working “to quickly decompress” hot spots along the U.S.-Mexico border, making sure asylum-seekers and other migrants are safely screened and their claims processed according to law.

It also warned migrants not to trust smugglers who spread rumors they say spark massive illegal crossings.

“Those who fail to use one of the many lawful pathways we have expanded will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subject to prompt removal, a five-year bar on admission and potential criminal prosecution if they do not have a basis to remain” in the U.S., CBP said in a statement to Border Report. Some of those pathways include the CBP One app to make online appointments at U.S. ports of entry.

“We encourage migrants to ignore the lies of smugglers and use lawful, safe and orderly pathways,” the agency said.

The agency also said that the provisional release of screened migrants awaiting their day in court is standard procedure and doesn’t mean the migrant has already been given asylum or will get to stay in the U.S.