{"id":663612,"date":"2018-12-27T20:26:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-28T03:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=663612"},"modified":"2018-12-28T12:24:59","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T19:24:59","slug":"as-ice-releases-hundreds-of-migrants-in-el-paso-local-shelter-eyes-more-beds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/12\/as-ice-releases-hundreds-of-migrants-in-el-paso-local-shelter-eyes-more-beds\/","title":{"rendered":"As ICE releases hundreds of migrants in El Paso, local shelter eyes more beds"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_663615\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-663615\" src=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/El_Paso_Christmas_Eve_3_JA_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Javier Grajeda\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/El_Paso_Christmas_Eve_3_JA_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/El_Paso_Christmas_Eve_3_JA_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/El_Paso_Christmas_Eve_3_JA_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/El_Paso_Christmas_Eve_3_JA_TT.jpg 850w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Juli\u00e1n Aguilar \/ the Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Javier Grajeda hands out hamburgers to asylum-seeking migrants who were released by ICE on Christmas Eve in El Paso, Texas.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>EL PASO, Texas \u2013 Churches, volunteers, hotels and the goodwill of the public at large.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take \u2013 all of these entities working together \u2013 to prevent hundreds more asylum-seeking, undocumented immigrants from being released by the federal government onto the streets of this border city with no place to go other than a bus station parking lot.<\/p>\n<p>The message came Thursday from Ruben Garcia, the director of El Paso\u2019s Annunciation House, a prominent local shelter which has for years taken in migrants seeking refuge in the United States after they are released from federal custody. His nonprofit was left scrambling this week after Immigration and Customs Enforcement abruptly changed its procedures late Sunday, two days before Christmas.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/12\/27\/el-paso-annuciation-house-expand-capacity-ice-migrants\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Normally, ICE reaches out to Garcia and alerts him when a large group is going to be released so he can coordinate their travel to one of the Annunciation House\u2019s hospitality centers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is utterly normal and common, we have been receiving families that have been released by ICE for the last five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, without warning, ICE released hundreds of migrants at the local Greyhound station without alerting Garcia.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOut of those 360 days [this year] there are four days in which ICE released families to the street,&#8221; Garcia said. &#8220;I cannot explain to you why that was done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>ICE was unable to respond to this story \u2013 as it did not respond to a previous request this week &#8212; because the public affairs office is closed due to the partial government shutdown.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are unable to respond to media queries during this period because we are prohibited by law from working. If you still require a response, please resubmit your query upon the government re-opening,\u201d the agency&#8217;s spokesperson said in an auto-reply email.<\/p>\n<p>Garcia said he and his staff worked until the pre-dawn hours Monday until all the families ICE dropped off Sunday evening \u2013 more than 200 \u2013 were able to find a place to stay. But ICE continued dropping off migrants for the next few days, leading to a four-day total of between 1,600 and 1,700, Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>The daily bed space available at the Annunciation House\u2019s network of centers is hard to pinpoint because it depends on how quickly the migrants who have recently been provided housing are able to begin the journey to their final destinations. During the latest surge of families migrating to the United States to seek asylum, Garcia said his organization and its partners have been able to provide space to about 2,200 people a week. But the increasing swell of unauthorized migration has led Garcia to work to expand the group&#8217;s network to at least 3,000 beds<b> <\/b>a week in order to avoid what happened on Sunday and continued through the Christmas holiday.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Garcia said he understands the government has limited space, is regulated by law on how long it can hold migrants and that the infrastructure currently in place is designed to hold single men, not families. But he said families with young children spilling on to the streets in the middle of a West Texas winter is not the answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The government] is very much aware that these holding cells are woefully inappropriate. In creates pressure on the part of [Customs and Border Protection], on ICE to try and release these families for whom they have no detention space for,\u201d he said. \u201c[But] I am calling upon ICE, I am calling upon CBP to commit to themselves that never again will families be released to the street.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Garcia credits the people of El Paso and elsewhere for stepping up and doing their part to help in response to ICE&#8217;s unexpected change in policy. On Christmas Eve, volunteers flooded a parking lot across the street from one of the Annunciation House\u2019s locations to offer food, blankets and stuffed animals to the families who had been released. They included outgoing El Paso Congressman <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/directory\/beto-orourke\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Beto O\u2019Rourke<\/a> and his staff and El Paso County Judge John Vogt. El Paso Mayor Dee Margo has also volunteered at other locations, Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>But the community at large needs to remain engaged and willing to help as the region is certain to continue to draw more migrants, the majority of whom are from Central America, during their unexpected pit stop to the border regions in Texas and New Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s on us as a community, that\u2019s on us as those people that are very interested in the welfare of these families, of these refuges and people that are interested in human rights,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s on us to step forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So far, the vast majority of the effort to assist the migrants has come from donations, including about $150,000 a month for hotel space during the recent surge, Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>At some point, he said he may consider asking the city of El Paso to provide additional resources to help keep an increasingly difficult situation under control. The city already provides migrants seeking the help of groups like Annunciation House use of city buses for travel and police for safety, according to a city press release. But if ICE starts releasing even more migrants unequipped to find their own shelter or reach family elsewhere in the country, local officials may feel a need to provide more support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMight the day come when the numbers are such that they simply surpass our total capacity?\u201d he said. \u201cI keep pretty close tabs on the flow here at the border and I don\u2019t think we\u2019re there yet.\u201d<script src=\"https:\/\/dot.texastribune.org\/static\/dist\/dot.min.55eef7d282ec435600d1.js\" integrity=\"sha384-kWHbWWrJHsBy04\/FLYpSF8whX7iznTaWu7KCwxjA7qmPD3La29VFha61MJDfKQ+e\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/12\/27\/el-paso-annuciation-house-expand-capacity-ice-migrants\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration shelters in the El Paso area are trying to expand capacity as the federal government released hundreds of migrants this week with no place to go and without warning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":663615,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3679,298],"class_list":["post-663612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-borderlands","tag-el-paso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663612"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":663618,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663612\/revisions\/663618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}