SAN ANTONIO, Texas — City leaders are apparently overwhelmed by the arrival of released migrants who later use local transportation hubs to reach other parts of the country. Breitbart Texas reviewed official correspondence and emails regarding a request to limit the number of daily migrant arrivals as local leaders level threats to bus them back to the Texas-Mexico border. One federal official even suggests piggybacking on Governor Greg Abbott’s initiative to bus migrants straight to Washington, D.C. as an alternative.
In a July 27 letter from the City to U.S. Customs and Border Protection plus nonprofit shelters in Del Rio and Laredo, a request is made to limit the number of migrants bused to the local Migrant Resource Center. The center provides respite to those who do not have a departure window of less than six hours to other parts of the country. Migrants with a departure time of less than six hours from their arrival in San Antonio are left directly at bus terminals or the international airport.
San Antonio is the latest city to join other metropolitan areas expressing displeasure with the growing border crisis under the Biden Administration. In July, District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser formally asked the White House for an open-ended deployment of 150 National Guardsmen per day, plus a “suitable federal location” for a mass housing and processing center to accommodate buses of migrants sent by Texas officials.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams recently spoke out about the busloads also arriving from Texas and requested more federal funding to absorb the impacts not typically felt so far from the U.S.-Mexico Border.
Email correspondence provided to Breitbart Texas show the content and tone of conversations between CBP and a City of San Antonio representative which reference a threat to bus migrants back to the streets of Del Rio, Texas, should federal authorities fail to abide by the suggested municipal limits. The letter requests migrants bused to San Antonio from the border cities of Laredo, Del Rio, and Eagle Pass together be limited to no more than 600 per day.
More than 1,800 migrants are apprehended daily within the Del Rio and Laredo Sectors. Although not all migrants are released into the United States, nearly half are bused to San Antonio, according to a source within CBP, thanks to the international airport and bus terminals.
The municipal letter notes the population of migrants at the Migrant Resource Center is presently at double capacity of 600.
In a recent local news report, local residents met with City officials last Thursday and expressed their displeasure with the center and its inhabitants.
One resident living near the shelter associated with a neighborhood association called the center a “cancer,” while another called the location an “eyesore.” One attendee at the meeting circulated a petition to force a relocation of the shelter.
According to a source within CBP, the matter was not resolved with the City to their satisfaction. The source says the flow is too great to stem on a practical level. In one email from CBP headquarters to Border Patrol, a suggestion is made that using state-funded buses set up by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to move the migrants to Washington, D.C., may be the only alternative to keep up with daily arrivals from Mexico.
The CBP source, not authorized to speak to the media, told Breitbart Texas the City of San Antonio does not want the migrants roaming freely or at transportation hubs for fear of tourism impacts and resident backlash. The source added that if San Antonio authorities made good on their threat, migrants would have to be forced back onto southbound buses.
A request for information from the City of San Antonio has not been received as of press time.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.
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