Released Migrants Overwhelm Texas Border Town on New Year’s Day

EAGLE PASS, Texas — With non-government migrant shelters at capacity and closed for the New Year’s Day holiday, the Border Patrol was forced to release migrants directly onto the streets of Eagle Pass. Most of the migrants huddled outside a local transportation company, hoping to make a quick exit from the small border city. The transportation hub is only a block from an official port of entry that has been closed for weeks due to the latest border surge hitting the small community of 30,000 residents.

Breitbart Texas posted near the transportation hub and spoke to several released migrants walking through the heart of downtown Eagle Pass. One migrant woman, who walked along the sidewalk with her two small children, says she cannot afford the cost of transportation to leave the city and hopes the local non-government shelter, Mission Border Hope, will help her. Guadalupe, a 30-year-old Venezuelan national, says she hopes to make her way to Chicago to meet a friend who entered the United States several weeks ago.

Guadalupe says she left Venezuela after a divorce that left her to take care of her two sons, who are less than five years old. Although migrant crossings have slowed in recent days, the Border Patrol is still dealing with the aftermath of a surge that saw more than 22,000 migrant apprehensions during the third week of December. According to the Border Patrol, the releases are a last resort to alleviate overcrowding at a processing facility near Eagle Pass and surrounding Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio Sector, which includes Eagle Pass.

According to a source within CBP, not authorized to speak to the media, nearly 1,500 migrants are released daily, mostly to non-government migrant shelters. When the shelters reach capacity or close for holidays, the migrants are released directly onto the city streets. Although most quickly leave the border city for other parts of the United States, the cost of providing emergency medical care to the migrants is costing the city’s fire department more than $20,000 daily, according to city officials.

The decision to close the city’s international bridge in late November also negatively impacts local businesses relying on legal border crossers to augment sales during the holiday season. Wait times to cross the border at the city’s only open port of entry are reported to be as high as 10-12 hours. The excessive wait time is discouraging many legitimate border crossers from making the trip into Eagle Pass from neighboring Piedras Negras, Mexico, a city of more than 200,000 residents.

The release of nearly 1,500 migrants in just one border town daily is a bad sign for many sanctuary cities far from the border that are struggling to deal with the cost of providing the migrants with shelter and care. Less than a week ago, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson joined New York City Mayor Eric Adams and Denver Mayor Mike Johnson in a joint video press conference to renew pleas to the Biden Administration to provide more funding to cover the costs incurred due to the increase in migrant arrivals.

According to Chicago Mayor Johnson, the city is currently providing shelter to 15,000 migrants. Despite a recent city ordinance that bans buses carrying migrants to the city without proper coordination with the city and imposes a $3,000 fine for violations, Johnson says an estimated 500 migrants arrived daily over the Christmas weekend in rogue buses.

During the press conference, Johnson directed his anger at the State of Texas, saying:

Texas bus operators continue to willfully break the law by disregarding regulations designed to ensure the safety of asylum seekers arriving in Chicago. To date, 95 buses have been cited in violation of the ordinance, two buses have been impounded and three buses have been issued ANOVs (Administrative Notice of Violations) for illegal sewage dumping.

Guadalupe, the Venezuelan mother of two released on New Year’s Day in Eagle Pass, told Breitbart Texas she hopes to reach Chicago as soon as possible despite the cold weather. “Anything is better than Venezuela at this point. What do we have to lose?” she emphasized.

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.