Border Tensions With Mexico Increase

Migrants Are Detained Under a Bridge in El Paso. What Happened? By SIMON ROMERO People rest as they are held by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in an enclosed area beneath the Paso del Norte International Bridge in El Paso, Tex., on Friday. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

The surge in Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States is straining facilities across the Southwest border, with Border Patrol processing facilities this week handling thousands of people in excess of the system’s capacity. President Trump threatened to close the border next week if Mexico did not halt “all illegal immigration” into the United States.

El Paso, the Texas border city where the president held a rally in February calling for his wall with Mexico, is emerging as a flash point. Border Patrol agents in the city have begun holding migrant families in an area under a bridge, surrounded by fencing and razor wire.

Photos of the conditions drew attention this week on social media and in news reports. Here’s a look at where the migrants came from, and how they came to be detained under the bridge.

A growing wave of migrants has overwhelmed Texas border facilities

People held in an enclosure by U.S. Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday, after crossing the border between Mexico and the United States. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

Agents are apprehending about 570 migrants a day in the El Paso metropolitan area, up from about 100 a day five months ago. On some days last year, there were no apprehensions at all in the entire El Paso sector, which stretches across New Mexico and a swath of West Texas.

The increase translates into a lack of space at processing facilities, so officials put up a large military tent under the Paso Del Norte International Bridge in what they describe as a temporary measure. The tent has bathrooms, blankets, water and food — but people appear to be miserable nonetheless.

Stays in the encampment are said to vary from several hours to a couple of days, depending on the flow of migrants across the border. Some migrants are sleeping in cots inside the government tent, while others prefer to sleep on the ground outside.

Kevin McAleenan, the commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, said at a news conference on Wednesday near the encampment that the country’s immigration enforcement system is at a “breaking point.”

Leaders in El Paso are skeptical

Political and business leaders in El Paso are expressing criticism over the Trump administration’s handling of the new influx. Many in the city, a Democratic bastion, had already disputed the president’s assertion that border fencing had cut crime in El Paso.

In a news conference in El Paso on Wednesday, Mr. McAleenan announced that C.B.P. was temporarily reassigning up to 750 officers to places on the border that are grappling with the increased flow of migrants. But some of those in El Paso say the overall response has been haphazard.

A sticking point is the Trump administration’s plan to spend $192 million on a new immigrant processing center in the city. Officials chose an old 400,000-square-foot Hoover vacuum plant for the site.

But business leaders are questioning whether the manufacturing facility is the best place to process migrants in a humane way. Others claim that federal officials chose the site despite concerns over its proximity to schools, businesses and residential areas.

In any case, the new center won’t be open until at least June.

A man in the enclosed area under the bridge on Friday. Tamir Kalifa for The New York Times

Tension is building with Mexico

Mr. Trump has lashed out at Mexico’s government, claiming on Twitter that it was doing “nothing” to stop unauthorized migrants from reaching the United States.

But the view in Mexico is more nuanced. In fact, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has already given in to some of Mr. Trump’s demands, breaking with decades of asylum practices in Mexico. (Read more about that here.)

Mexican authorities have been blocking groups of migrants at some border towns, intercepting unaccompanied minors before they reach American soil and allowing the Trump administration to send more than 120 migrants to Tijuana to await decisions on asylum requests.

Now Mr. López Obrador’s efforts to avoid a confrontation with Mr. Trump over the issue seem to be waning. The Mexican president said on Thursday that while he respected Mr. Trump’s position, the problem largely involved the United States and Central American countries.

“I just emphasize that migration flows of Mexicans to the United States are very low,” Mr. López Obrador told reporters in Mexico City.

“The Mexican is no longer seeking work in the United States,” he said. “The majority are inhabitants of our fellow Central American countries.”

Migration dynamics from Latin America have changed

Border Patrol apprehensions remain well below their peak of 1.6 million in 2000. But apprehensions climbed to 467,000 in 2018, the highest level in six years. Mr. McAleenan said at his news conference on Wednesday that there were more than 12,000 migrants in United States custody at the beginning of the week. “As of this morning, that number was 13,400. A high number for us is 4,000. A crisis level is 6,000. 13,000 is unprecedented,” he said.

The important thing to understand is that migration patterns from Latin America have undergone a big shift.

Standing in contrast to previous migration surges, the latest one involves few single men from Mexico. Instead, as more Mexicans actually leave the United States than arrive as migrants, Central American families now account for the large majority of new arrivals.

Whereas the Border Patrol could easily deport undocumented Mexicans, deporting Central Americans is more challenging. Most are arriving as family units applying for asylum, a process that can take months or years to evaluate. The federal government is letting many migrants go free each week because it lacks enough beds to hold them in family detention centers.

“The situation has changed dramatically, and we’re responding to it the best we can,” said Ramiro Cordero, a Border Patrol spokesman in El Paso.

[More migrants are crossing the border this year. Read more about what’s changed.]

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