El Paso Convention Center as a Shelter for Migrants amid a Recent Suggestion in Immigrant Arrivals due to the U.S. Cold Weather
Caripaz has Struggled to find Shelter amid a recent Surge in Migrant arrivals, due to El Paso’s frigid temperatures as a Winter storm sweeps across the US.
Lisba, who is Venezuelan and whose last name we are not using because she and her family slipped into the country without documents, says she’s afraid to seek shelter. In Spanish, she says she’s scared because they’ll send us back. Only people who turned themselves into the Border Patrol and now have immigration paperwork can sleep in the thousand cots at the city’s convention center. That is a rule of the federal government, so it is helping cover the shelter’s costs, according to the city.
Mario D’Agostino is the deputy city manager in El Paso, and he wanted to make sure that everyone who was on the street off the streets would be able to get out before cold weather hit.
“We are sending buses out to their location to pick up people and bring them over to the convention center so we can free up the space,” D’Agostino said.
On Thursday, the sidewalks near the Greyhound bus station were still lined with blankets and makeshift bedding as dozens of migrants tried to keep warm at night.
This latest wave of migrants stationed themselves a block away from old brick tenements that have housed generations of immigrants in El Paso going back more than a century. The local food bank had a small U-Haul-sized truck parked on the side street where volunteers could give out sandwiches and bags of pork rinds.
El Paso police officers on bicycle patrol encouraged migrants to relocate to the emergency shelter a block away in the city-owned convention center. Many migrants were still on the street but did not turn themselves in to the Border Patrol.
A Mexican family that crossed the border without a trace of their children: Gabriela and her husband, Miguel, were kidnapped and abandoned by the Border Patrol
Mexico doesn’t take back migrants from certain countries because of the restrictions, so it’s applied differently. Until recently, Venezuelan migrants were also exempt — but now they too can be expelled to Mexico under Title 42.
“We didn’t turn ourselves into the Border Patrol for fear they would send us back after all we’ve suffered to get here,” says a woman named Gabriela. It was her and her husband that crossed undetected with their children.
She described their journey from Venezuela, and how they ended up in a jungle in Panama where they were separated for a time.
Mexico was the most difficult part of their journey. The family said Mexican border authorities harassed them, detained them for three days, and stole their personal belongings. They said they witnessed children being kidnapped off the streets into random vehicles. The family traveled along with three other migrants.
The group arrived in Ciudad Juárez three days before the Texas National Guard descended upon the northern bank of the Rio Grande. They watched troops spill out of a parade of Humvees and uncoil reams of razor wire. Wilfor, a cook who was part of the group, said that the sight was unnerving.
The group took the chance at crossing despite the rumor. They picked a spot that required traversing an irrigation canal that is well-known for migrant drowns. They crawled through a hole snipped into a chain-link fence and then sprinted across six lanes of highway where the speed limit was 60 miles per hour.
A warning to citizens of El Paso Texas during the winter months, CNN reports on two shelters accepting undocumented migrants
She said that the city needs to follow federal and state policies which require migrants to have documentation in order to receive shelter.
Some NGOs are accepting migrants without documentation into their facilities because there are few options for shelter. CNN spoke with two shelters who are accepting undocumented migrants but are experiencing overcrowding.
Three men, who did not want to be identified, told CNN they have been expelled from the US multiple times in recent weeks and no longer want to turn themselves into border authorities because they have been refused legal entry so many times. The men say that they passed through border barriers without being noticed by border agents.
“Extremely cold, below freezing temperatures are expected along the Mexico and United States border during the next several days,” Hugo Carmona, Acting Associate Chief of US Border Patrol Operations, said in a video statement. “Do not risk your life and that of your loved ones trying to cross the river or the desert. Stay home, or in a safe shelter, if you have to, to help avoid tragedies and death. This is a very important warning.
John Martin, deputy director of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless, told CNN he’s asked the city’s emergency department to open the convention center to undocumented migrants for at least the next two days but has been unsuccessful, he said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/23/us/migrants-el-paso-texas-winter-weather-friday/index.html
Christmas in El Paso, Texas: Families and Friends of a Santa Maria Claus from the U.S.-Mexico Crossing
Officials at Sacred Heart Church said their capacity is going to increase to 200 for the next four nights because they want to have enough for women and children. The people are waiting outside of the church.
“We do have a moderate-sized airport, we have a couple of smaller bus terminals, but that’s not enough to keep up with normal holiday traffic,” D’Agostino told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Saturday.
EL PASO, Texas – In some ways it feels like it could be any other Christmas in El Paso. The annual holiday display downtown features hundreds of thousands of tiny lights and a 55 foot Christmas tree that glitters with ornaments. People snap photos near the life-size nativity scene depicting the baby Jesus in the manger.
Mary and Joseph had no room at the inn for Christmas. Thousands of migrants who crossed the U.S.- Mexico border are now without a place to sleep or stay.
Over the last few days, some churches have opened their doors to all migrants, regardless of their immigration status, bringing them in from the bitter cold. A man from Venezuela, David Carrero, and his family have been spending nights at a church.
Back at the bus station, local residents Adan Amezaga, his wife and two young daughters have given out gallons of coffee and more than a thousand sandwiches to migrants during the last several days.
While migrants had been hoping for the biggest Christmas gift of all, the lifting of pandemic border restrictions that would allow them to seek asylum in the United States, which did not happen, they are grateful for the kindness of strangers this holiday season.
Caripaz: When the Sacred Heart Church opened on Christmas Eve, it was hard for him to leave his family and friends in Dallas, he told CNN
Caripaz has family and friends in Dallas. He has been sleeping on the street near the Sacred Heart Church shelter because it is over capacity.
A state of emergency was declared over thousands of migrants living in unsafe conditions in the city, as the border policy under President Donald Trump remains unclear.
According to the shelter, it’s open to all migrants regardless of their immigration status, and it prioritized women and children during the cold front. Hundreds of people continue to wait outside the church.
Many migrants told CNN sleeping in 20-degree temperature has been very difficult, but it’s being away from their families that is especially hard on Christmas.
Caripaz said that he did it for his children. “I came to work, I have faith…[My son] wants his bike and I told him Santa can’t bring it yet, but he will bring it in January.”