More than 1,500 migrants waded across the Rio Grande into El Paso Sunday

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In one in every of the largest mass crossings ever in the area, extra than 1,500 migrants waded across the Rio Grande from Juárez into El Paso Sunday night time.

“Welcome to the United States!” a younger man in the center of the Rio Grande shouted to the tons of of migrants arriving at the border from shelters in Juárez on Sunday night time. “You made it!”

The migrants who crossed Sunday night time had been in a group of hundreds who had been escorted by Chihuahua State Police from the metropolis of Jiménez to Juárez earlier in the day in a caravan of 20 buses. The buses cut up up in Juárez and introduced migrants to the Leona Vicario and Kiki Romero shelters.

The migrants stated they had been from Nicaragua, Peru and Ecuador.

U.S. immigration officers declined to remark Sunday night time.

The mass crossing got here at a time when Border Patrol amenities and nongovernmental shelters in El Paso are harassed past capability.

More than 5,100 migrants had been held as of Sunday in the Border Patrol Central Processing Center, which is designed to briefly maintain 3,500 folks, in keeping with a dashboard maintained by the city of El Paso.

U.S. immigration officers launched 1,744 migrants in El Paso on Saturday and Sunday. Because that was extra than the out there beds at shelters run by nongovernmental organizations, 611 of them had been launched on the streets in downtown El Paso, in keeping with the dashboard.

Border Patrol brokers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the El Paso area, which incorporates New Mexico, have encountered nearly 15,000 migrants in the previous week, in keeping with the dashboard. That is the highest weekly complete of the yr to this point.

Federal and native officers are bracing for continued progress in migrant crossings with the finish of Title 42, a controversial coverage begun throughout the Trump administration and expanded in the Biden administration to shortly expel many migrants on public well being grounds. A federal choose has stated the coverage should finish by Dec. 21, although the Biden administration is interesting the ruling.

The caravan that arrived Sunday had been stopped in Jiménez on Thursday by Chihuahua state officers who stated Juárez couldn’t deal with extra migrants. But the migrants had been allowed to go to Juárez on buses Sunday.

More than 300 migrants bought off seven buses at the Leona Vicario shelter. They can be given meals and medical consideration after which can be allowed to go away in the event that they wished, stated Ana Laura Rodela, a spokesperson for Leona Vicario.

Many migrants on this group had been victims of a mass kidnapping in Durango on Dec. 3, when passengers on the Futura bus strains touring towards the border had been stopped by males in police uniforms. They had been introduced en masse to a home the place they had been held towards their will.

“We were 1,500 people sleeping in a house,” stated Carmen, a 29-year-old girl from Peru who didn’t need to use her actual title as a result of she fears reprisals after being kidnapped. “They took everything, my passport, my phone. My legs are covered with bruises from other people kicking while we slept.”

They had been rescued by members of the Mexican navy after six days, however a lot of them like Carmen weren’t in a position to get better their stolen paperwork and possessions in the confusion of the rescue operation.

They continued on their method to Chihuahua, the place state authorities initially advised them that buses would take them to the border in Juárez, the place they might cross to give up themselves to U.S. Border Patrol brokers.

The buses arrived as a substitute at shelters in Juárez, the place a lot of the migrants felt they’d be locked in simply as they’d been once they had been kidnapped.

“I feel like they are not being straightforward with us,” stated Carmen as she sat on the bus in the Leona Vicario parking zone. “I feel like I am being treated like a criminal when I am a victim. I don’t trust anyone.”

When the shelters advised the migrants they had been free to go, tons of of them made their method to the Rio Grande 2 miles away. State police escorted a few of the teams from the shelters to the riverbank.

Marjorie and her 6-year-old son, additionally victims of the kidnapping, arrived at the river round 6 p.m. A Venezuelan man helped the little boy across a shallow space of the river close to the Puente Negro railroad bridge. Marjorie adopted behind, clutching a bag of belongings.

Earlier in the day, just a few hundred migrants had shaped a line alongside the El Paso facet of the river. Marjorie and tons of of others from the caravan of buses who streamed across the river joined the line, the place some folks had began to construct fires to remain heat. Others crossed again to Juárez to purchase water and meals for these in line.

“I am traumatized from threats in my country, and I am traumatized from the kidnapping here. All I want is to arrive at a place that is safe,” stated Carmen. “That is all we’re asking for.”