On Sunday, 1,500 illegal immigrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico Border in El Paso; the figure represents one of the largest migrant crossings in West Texas history.
The Migrants had been dropped off by a caravan of 20 buses at the El Paso border, crossing the Rio Grande following nightfall on Sunday. Chihuahua State Police escorted the caravan from Jiménez to the city of Juárez earlier on Sunday.
Many of the migrants in the group of 1,500 are believed to be from Ecuador, Nicaragua, or Peru — with the most significant swathe of recent illegal migrants coming from Nicaragua.
Migrants from the Central American country are seeking asylum from the increasingly-authoritarian government and poor economic conditions.
Since Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed migrants to be expelled as a public health measure, has ended, there is no policy to return migrants to their country quickly.
Deporting Nicaraguan Migrants is only complicated as the U.S.’s strained relationship with the country’s regime.
Sunday’s influx of Migrants also overwhelmed El Paso’s resources.
The Border Patrol Central Processing Center, with a capacity to hold 3,500 migrants, temporarily held 5,100 Migrants by Sunday evening.
U.S. immigration officials also released 1,744 migrants on Sunday, 611 of which had to sleep on the streets — with the community left to provide coats and resources — as the city’s NGO-run shelters were overwhelmed.
To many, especially those on the right, Sunday’s border crossing and the resulting strain caused to the city’s resources directly resulted from the Biden administration’s lack of action to secure the Southern border.
