A pandemic-era border policy is set to end next week, and it has border towns worried about an influx of undocumented immigrants.
In El Paso, more than 2,600 people are pouring in daily, and that number could increase to an average of 4,500 a day if Title 42 ends, County Judge Ricardo Samaniego said in a virtual news conference Tuesday.
The rule, enacted under the Trump administration, allows the feds turn away migrants at the border in the interest of public health. If Title 42 comes to an end, local officials and nonprofits say their resources will be more strained than they already are.
The Rescue Mission of El Paso is scrambling to find room for dozens of migrants who show up each night on short notice.
“We’ve never seen anything like this, and I’ve been the CEO for 25 years,” Blake Barrow said. “Since the middle of September, we got this massive flood of migrants coming in.”