Annunciation House: BP releasing more migrants; no capability to bus them out of El Paso

Ruben Garcia, the executive director of Annunciation House, told the media Monday there is now a new dynamic when it comes to the release of asylum seekers and refugees, with the U.S. Border Patrol releasing more migrants and Immigration and Customs Enforcement releasing fewer migrants.

“That is very concerning,” said Garcia, “The U.S. Border Patrol does not have the bus capability to transport families it is releasing out of El Paso.”

Annunciation House is a local shelter that has been helping refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. during its 41 year history.

“ICE, from our experience, is the entity we have been working for the past five years. Frankly, ICE is very good at how it releases people, and more importantly, ICE has the transportation network to be able to transport people out of El Paso to Las Cruces and Albuquerque,” Garcia said.

Annunciation House has reached out to churches in Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Dallas and Denver because its migrant hospitality network in El Paso sometimes runs out of space to house migrants.

Due to existing laws, however, ICE is not able to transport migrants for more than eight hours. This means Las Cruces and Albuquerque are the only option for migrants released in El Paso who have no means to pay for their own transportation out of El Paso. “If the distance is more than eight hours, ICE is not allowed to do that,” Garcia said, “That is why we are limiting ourselves to Albuquerque and Las Cruces, because it would exceed eight hours to take them to Dallas or Denver.”

Garcia described a surge in migrants when more than 1,000 refugees are released by ICE at any given point. “We’ve had four of those and this fourth one surpasses all the other surges that we have seen because the numbers have increased to 4,500 refugees released to us in a week,” Garcia said, “There have been times when we did not have the capacity to house the migrants and they were released into the streets in the El Paso area.”

During his news conference Monday, Garcia explained how the apprehension and release of migrants takes place. Border Patrol apprehends the migrants in between ports of entry and notifies ICE about the apprehension of family units. The migrant families are taken to “staging areas,” where they board ICE buses. ICE then works with Annunciation House to transport the migrants to hospitality sites in El Paso, Las Cruces and Albuquerque. ICE has been releasing migrants for months now because of a lack of space for family units at its own detention facilities, Garcia said.

Garcia said the number of migrants has steadily increased. 750 migrants were released by ICE on Wednesday, March 27, 2019, the highest ever for a single day.

Garcia said the U.S. Border Patrol is now releasing families, just like ICE, a practice first implemented in South Texas. The Border Patrol has promised it will not release migrants after 7 p.m. and never during inclement weather.

Garcia said it is important to have buses to transport the migrants to hospitality sites outside El Paso as the Border Patrol begins to release more migrants. “When the Border Patrol told us it no longer had buses to transport families outside of El Paso, that is very disconcerting to me,” said Garcia, “That became concerning to me, because as the Border Patrol begins to release more migrants than ICE, those migrants released by the Border Patrol will likely stay in El Paso.”

On Wednesday, March 27th, the U.S. Border Patrol released 75 migrants to Annunciation House. On Friday the 29th, it released 115. On Saturday, it released 184. On Sunday, it released 213. On Monday, April 1, 2019, Annunciation House expects the Border Patrol to release 240 migrants.

“As the stream of migrants released by the Border Patrol increases, the stream of migrants released by ICE decreases,” said Garcia, “I am asking myself: has some decision been made to slowly withdraw ICE from the process of release? I am very much hoping that is not the case.”

The Border Patrol asked Garcia if Annunciation House has hospitality sites in the New Mexico cities and towns of Silver City, Lordsburg, Deming, Alamogordo. “I said no. We’ve never had to have anything like that because everyone is relesed in El Paso. Then it dawned on me: is the reason they are asking because they are considering releasing families in these towns?” Garcia asked.

Garcia told the Border Patrol transporation – via Greyhound – from towns in Southwest New Mexico to El Paso is very limited. During a “courtesy call” later that day, the Border Patrol told Garcia migrant families would be released in Fort Hancock and Clint in Texas; and in Las Cruces, Deming, and Lordsburg in New Mexico. “Finding hospitality for these families was not possible and the Border Patrol reversed its decision, instead releasing them in El Paso,” said Garcia.

When combining the numbers of migrants released by ICE and BP, Annunciation House is taking in about 500 to 600 migrants a day, Garcia said. “That is a number we can handle. I have no way to predict what will happen going forward.”

Annunciation House is in the process of securing a large warehouse it plans to turn into a hospitality site. Garcia said the new hospitality site will open in the near future.

Garcia also provided an update on the new processing center being built in El Paso by Customs and Border Protection. “Unfortunately, that processing center now appears to be a year away,” said Garcia.