Customs and Border Patrol has proposed the construction of a second centralized migrant processing facility in El Paso, Texas, where migrant families will be held. CBP is currently in the process of acquiring land for the facility, which according to a July 2020 environmental assessment, would accomodate for 965 detainees and a staff of 200.
A new shelter for unaccompanied migrant children is set to open in El Paso and is expected to host up to 104 teenage girls.
Asylum-seekers being flown from the Rio Grande Valley to El Paso due to limited capacity are being expelled to Mexico by CBP, according to the Dallas Morning News. Exact numbers are unclear, but at least 50 migrants have been expelled into Juarez.
El Paso will begin receiving two flights per day, each carrying 135 migrants from the Rio Grande Valley sector. The migrants will be processed in El Paso and stay at shelters until arrangements are made for them to connect with family in the United States.
Some Remain in Mexico enrollees are being allowed into the United States as of Friday, February 19, first at the San Diego port of entry and later through Brownsville and El Paso as well. Processing will be slow at first, with only a few hundred entering per day.
Two migrants sustained serious injuries after falling from the border wall near New Mexico and were expelled to Mexico instead of receiving medical attention, despite not being able to stand on their own.
Published by The Intercept on November 1, 2020.
A public defender in El Paso ran up against the Trump administration’s early rollout of its family separation policy.
Published by Reveal on September 10, 2020.
ICE repeatedly rebuffed New Mexico state health officials’ offers to help control a worsening outbreak of COVID-19 at its Otero County Processing Center.
Published by Politico on August 30, 2020.
Tianna Spears, a diplomat assigned to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, recounts the difficulty she consistently experienced re-entering the United States, as an African-American person, through CBP’s ports of entry.
Published by The Boston Globe on August 1, 2020.
A look at El Paso and Ciudad Juárez a year after a gunman’s rampage at an El Paso Walmart.
Published by Texas Public Radio on July 24, 2020.
An audio report and accompanying text, reported from the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, and Mexico City, about the impact of the Trump administration’s virtual ending of the right to asylum at the border during the pandemic.
Caption: “Criminals don’t see vehicles the way you do. They see door panels, seats, gas tanks, tires & everything in between as an opportunity to hide their illicit items. @CBP’s committed to detecting their contraband & putting the brakes on criminal organizations.”
Caption: “@CBP has completed construction of more than 220 miles of new border wall system.”
Caption: “USBP Horse Patrol & ground agents apprehended 2 narcotics smugglers with 62.6 lbs. of marijuana, valued at $50,808, strapped to their backs.”
Caption: “Extremely proud of our #ElPaso Sector #USBP Special Ops & Mobile Response agents for quickly responding yesterday to assist @EPPolice & @TxDPSWest with unruly protestors.”
Audio published by National Public Radio’s Latino USA on May 20, 2020.
This report from Ciudad Juárez looks at the Trump administration’s dismantling of asylum and the Mexican government’s surprisingly robust cooperation with it.
“Border Patrol Agents in Clint, TX use an sUAS [drone] as a force multiplier as 7 subjects attempt an illegal entry by using a ladder to climb the border wall. Agents arrested 2 while the others ran back into Mexico.”
Published by WOLA on May 7, 2020.
An interview with El Paso-based asylum lawyer Taylor Levy.
“Alamogordo #BPAs at the HWY70 checkpoint stopped a smuggling attempt by utilizing a license plate reader and X-ray technology to locate a subject hidden in a horse trailer.”