Migrant shelters in Juarez run out of space for expelled families

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Shelters equipped to house migrants in Ciudad Juarez are hitting their limit on space as families continue to be expelled into Mexico.

“There’s growing instability in Juarez on account of a growing migrant population," Dylan Corbett, founder of the Hope Border Institute, explained.

Corbett and his team assist migrants and shelters in Mexico, and he has seen the growing concerns of limited space in the shelters.

Juarez has 15 shelters that can take in migrant families, but because of coronavirus protocols, space is severely limited. There are 1,000 migrants housed across the shelter network in Juarez, but 2,000 other migrants have had to find shelter elsewhere.

“For every migrant that’s in a shelter right now, there are two who are not," Corbett said.

Corbett said the shelters can accommodate the migrants for now, but the city sees 120 migrants expelled across the bridge daily. Sometimes that number has been as high as 200, Corbett said.

The situation is worse in the Rio Grande Valley. U.S. Border Patrol was so overwhelmed with the number of migrants there that they started flying hundreds of migrants to El Paso as of March 8.

In Reyonosa, Mexico, migrants are dropped off with nowhere to go. Many of them gather under a gazebo in the town plaza and live there. The situation is not as dire in Juarez, but Corbett says it could happen.

“Certainly it's something that could happen here, especially if the U.S. government continues to fly migrants from other parts of the border to expel them in Ciudad Juarez,” Corbett explained.