EAGLE PASS, Texas — As a new surge at the border in the small town of Eagle Pass begins to grow, U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention buses are delivering migrants daily in larger numbers to a non-government shelter. Breitbart Texas drone footage shows one bus delivering nearly 50 migrants to the Mission Border Hope shelter on Friday. The group of migrants consisted of several family units and single adult migrants.
The shelter is currently housed in a new location, a 20,000-square-foot building that received up to 1,000 migrants or more from CBP daily during its peak operation in September and December of 2023. According to a source within CBP who is familiar with the daily migrant releases and operation of the shelter, more than 250,000 migrants have been released to the shelter during its operation.
The United Methodist Church operates the shelter using Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to provide food, shelter, and transportation away from the border for the migrants. According to the U.S. Department of Treasury, more than $13 million of FEMA Shelter and Services program funds have been obligated for use by the Mission Border Hope shelter in Eagle Pass under the Biden-Harris administration.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has bused more than 100,000 migrants from this shelter and others in Texas border cities to Washington D.C., New York City, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. On Friday, some migrants were being picked up by private vehicles outside the shelter while others were loaded on commercial conveyances for transportation to another shelter located in San Antonio, Texas. The network of federally funded shelters operates to move the migrants to other cities across the United States.
FEMA’s shelter and services program obligated more than $1 billion in federal funds in Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 to reimburse the network of shelters across the United States for expenses related to migrants released at the southwest border.
As election day nears, the source within CBP, not authorized to speak to the media, says a noticeable increase in migrants, including Special Interest Aliens and unaccompanied migrant children, has appeared in the small border town in recent weeks. As reported by Breitbart Texas, a resurgence of large single migrant groups crossing into Eagle Pass occurred in late September.
In the previous seven days, nearly 160 unaccompanied migrant children were sent across the border into Eagle Pass by their parents or other family members. The unaccompanied migrant children, most between the ages of 5-17, hailed from several Central and South American countries, according to the source within Customs and Border Protection. On Wednesday, Texas Department of Public Safety Highway Patrol troopers interdicted 57 unaccompanied migrant children in a single group of more than two hundred migrants fording the river.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the large groups crossing almost daily into the small Texas border town have included dozens of Special Interest Aliens from across the globe. The groups crossing into the city have been found to contain migrants from Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and several Western African countries.
The CBP source says the migrant increases are likely to continue and are expected to rise as the election grows closer.
“We are seeing an increase in the Special Interest Aliens and unaccompanied children,” the source stated. “These are demographics we have no way of returning. Absent any derogatory information discovered during processing, they will be released.” the source says.
According to CBP, nearly 250,000 migrant apprehensions have occurred in the Del Rio Sector of the Border Patrol. According to the source, almost 80 percent of all apprehensions within the sector occur within the city of Eagle Pass.
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 X (formerly Twitter) @RandyClarkBBTX.