President Biden got a watered-down version of the border crisis in El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, as the number of illegal immigrants crossing the US-Mexico line appears to have plummeted since December, according to reports.
Not only that, but the Central Processing Center, previously overwhelmed with immigrants, is no longer at its capacity of around 1,000 immigrants, and the immigrant encampments have suddenly disappeared, at least according to US Customs and Border Protection sources. .us
President Joe Biden walks with US Border Patrol agents along a stretch of the US-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas on Sunday, January 8, 2023.
(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
Before Biden’s visit, the Border Patrol union criticized the president over reports that state and local authorities were ramping up apprehensions and clearing migrant camps ahead of the commander-in-chief’s arrival.
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“El Paso is being cleaned up like nothing unusual ever happened there,” the National Border Patrol Council tweeted Friday. “Just in time for Biden’s ‘border visit’.”
The tweet was posted after an El Paso Matters report that said “large crowds” of migrants had been detained in El Paso by Border Patrol agents overnight Wednesday.
Later reports suggested that Border Patrol and local police stepped up patrols and apprehensions in El Paso ahead of the president’s visit on Sunday.
President Joe Biden has come under fire for a gaffe-prone speech on issues at the US southern border.
(Screenshot/Twitter)
“El Paso clears downtown of sprawling migrant encampments ahead of Biden visit,” Mayra Flores, a Texas Republican, tweeted. “Why not show you what our border community and law enforcement officials are up against on a daily basis?”
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CBP sources have confirmed that the migrant encampments in El Paso began last week, and it was in response to complaints from the community, including the El Paso Police Department.
The authorization was primarily to address large groups of mostly Venezuelan migrants who crossed into the US without turning themselves in to Border Patrol out of fear that Title 42 rules would expel them.
But because they were never processed by Border Patrol, they had no documentation from the Department of Homeland Security and were, in fact, in the US illegally.
Because they were in the US illegally, local shelters couldn’t take them in, and if they did, the shelter would be violating federal laws about taking in illegal aliens.
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Since migrants couldn’t get into the shelters, they set up camps and the crime rate increased, with many Venezuelans being arrested for stealing cars. Community members complained, according to CBP sources, and Border Patrol agents began making arrests.
Most of the remaining campgrounds are now in the downtown El Paso area.
CBP sources also said the number of illegal crossings in El Paso has plummeted since it peaked last month.
Fox News saw about 200 migrants on a street near a greyhound bus.
(FoxNews)
The El Paso sector saw an average of 2,150 daily migrant encounters in mid-December, which since early January has fallen below 1,000 per day.
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For those reasons, CBP sources told Fox that Biden would have a “clean and orderly” look at the migrant situation in El Paso.
Biden visited the border for the first time in his two years in office on Sunday afternoon, where he met with local elected officials and community leaders, while assessing operations at the border.
Brandon Judd, chairman of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News Digital last week that agents are “beyond frustrated” that the president allowed the border to deteriorate as much as it has.
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Before Sunday’s visit, Biden announced the expansion of a humanitarian parole program for Venezuelan citizens to include Haitians, Cubans and Nicaraguans. That program will allow 30,000 people a month from the four countries to be paroled into the US for a period of two years if they have a financial sponsor and meet other conditions. Those who attempt to enter illegally are not eligible for the program.
That expanded program will be coupled with an expansion of Title 42 removals to include those nationalities, allowing up to 30,000 of those who enter the US illegally each month to be quickly returned to Mexico. In addition, the administration announced increased use of an alternative removal authority, expedited removal, to remove those who do not apply for asylum and who cannot be removed under Title 42.
Biden visited the border in El Paso for three to four hours, his first visit as president and the first verified border visit of his long political career.
