There Is Not Enough Transportation Out of Border Towns to Accomodate Large Numbers of Illegals Crossing

EAGLE PASS, Texas — Airports and bus companies are struggling to keep up with the transportation needs of southern border towns strained by the number of
migrants
released by the Biden administration after crossing the border without authorization.

The shortages in transportation can mean that
migrants
have nowhere to go during the day or overnight, imposing new difficulties for residents of places like Eagle Pass, the remote Texas border town that has become ground zero of the migration crisis in recent weeks.

“This border issue — it’s a mess. I would describe it as chaos right now,” Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas said. “You have large groups coming in. It’s become normal to see a group of 20 people on Main Street, at Dairy Queen, at the lake. A lot of them have been released. They’re just walking around our city.”

Eagle Pass, a town of 29,000 residents working to overcome its reputation as
one of the most poverty-stricken places
in America, relies on a single nonprofit organization to aid migrants and help them move away from the border. The organization, Mission: Border Hope, was founded by Becky Baxter-Ballou and Bruce Ballou a decade ago with the intent of helping low-income families, but when migrants began crossing the international bridge seeking asylum several years ago, they started helping meet the hunger, clothing, and shelter needs of those entering their community.

“I remember the day it started. Customs showed up with probably 60 people on a bus. We thought, ‘Oh no. What are we going to do?’” Ballou said in a phone call. “They were families. They were kids and dads. We had a lot of moms with their kids. We just couldn’t sit by and not help.”

Mission: Border Hope operated for years out of a small church capable of holding 100 people. But as the Border Patrol began apprehending more people crossing last year, more people were released to the organization each day. In recent weeks, more than 500 people have been released to Mission: Border Hope daily.

“Border Patrol — I’ve asked them, ‘What are you going to do with the people you release?’ And they always say, ‘Mayor, if you don’t have a [nongovernmental organization], I’m just going to drop them off at the gas station,’” said Salinas, who is an independent. “So that would be even worse, right, having 500 people that are just in the streets.”

“Mission: Border Hope — they get received these people. They help them find the bus ticket or a plane ticket and get them out of here,” Salinas continued. “We’re for anything that gets people in and out. And these people don’t want to stay in Eagle Pass. They all know where they’re going.”

Most migrants are in need of a two-hour bus ride to get to San Antonio either the day they are released or the following day. However, private companies such as Greyhound are constantly sold out or not operating. Salinas said people who own private buses have found a “lucrative business” running people from Eagle Pass to San Antonio amid the bus shortage.

Even with the extra buses, Salinas said he has received phone calls this month from residents, irritated about people loitering in the neighborhood and the excessive litter around the shelter. To deal with the need for a larger space, Mission: Border Hope moved two weeks ago to an 8,000-square-foot commercial warehouse capable of holding hundreds of people inside.

Similar problems are afflicting other parts of the border seeing large numbers of migrants crossing the border, such as Yuma, Arizona, which is short on flights and airports. The 90,000-person city is a three-hour drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Transporting migrants released from custody has been a challenge, according to Republican Mayor Douglas Nicholls, but with limited flights, authorities are looking at other airports they can use to bus the 350 people who are booking flights each day.

“I don’t think you can do it all through Phoenix. Right now, we’re looking at a lot of different options, like Vegas, Palm Springs, Mesa Gateway, which is in Phoenix,” Nicholls said.

Since illegal immigration through the western half of Arizona began to climb a year ago, the Regional Center for Border Health stepped up as the sole organization helping migrants when they are discharged from Border Patrol facilities. To date, the city has been able to bus migrants to the Phoenix airport without any real problem, but any increase in those numbers will trigger a need for housing due to logistical constraints in getting everyone out of town the same day they are released. Nicholls has been trying to avoid having to set up shelters to hold migrants overnight, but he said that come summer, it will likely be a necessity.

“I’d rather have people during the summer in some sort of residential setting,” Nicholls said, noting the danger of leaving people without adequate shelter in the brutal summer heat. “That’s the humanitarian disaster we’re trying to prevent.”

By rolling out shelters, the city may avoid what happened in December, when 6,000 people were apprehended by the Border Patrol in four days. Government facilities were so overwhelmed that migrants walked from the border into the town in search of help, he said. The mayor declared a state of emergency and has continued it on the basis that he has not heard of any federal plan to help local governments handle the influx of people illegally crossing the border.

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