El Paso prepares for new surge of migrants

El Paso is bracing for a new surge of migrants on their way to the U.S. border.

Plans for a $190 million immigrant processing center is still in the development stages, leaving immigration shelters as well as local leaders to try and take control of the situation.

Officials at the Annunciation House have said that their resources are already running low as they’re currently helping over 2,000 immigrants a week.

The shelter was recently forced to turn away a new group of 150 migrants that had been brought to their door by ICE.

ICE then brought the group to the Caminos De Vida Church in the Lower Valley, having given them just 3 hours to prepare for the new guests.

“The El Paso community has stepped up,” said County Commissioner Vince Perez. “Ruben Garcia, the non-profit organizations and the churches have been very generous in receiving these migrants. However, I think there is going to come a point where the churches are going to be strained, Annunciation House is going to be strained and then there is going to be pressure on local government to pick up that slack.”

Newly arriving migrants have said that more people are on their way to the border from a number of South American communities as well as several African nations and Cuba.

“We as a county and a city are limited on what we can do,” said District 2 representative Alexsandra Annello. “There are also consequences.” “If we were to be in charge of a volunteer coordinator we would then be in charge of background checks, which are expensive and are back up now with ice and other organizations.”

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Congresswoman Veronica Escobar held an emergency immigration conference with various local leaders to discuss possible solutions to help handle the rapidly growing number of new arrivals.