Thread: 'It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait': Border Patrol preps for arr

'It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait': Border Patrol preps for arrival of migrant caravan

Alan Gomez, USA TODAYPublished 9:55 a.m. ET Oct. 27, 2018 | Updated 10:39 a.m. ET Oct. 27, 2018

Thousands of migrants camp overnight in southern Mexico as they make their way towards the U.S. border. USA TODAY




(Photo: Alan Gomez, USA Today)
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – With 2,100 National Guardsmen already fanned out along the southern border, and another 1,000 troops on the way, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to ensure that members of the migrant caravan headed north through Mexico do not illegally enter the United States.


But after touring the largest port of entry along that southern border on Friday, the head of Customs and Border Protection conceded that his officers don't have a way to speed up their ability to process caravan members trying to enter the country legally by requesting asylum.


While visiting the San Ysidro Port of Entry, the main crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said his agency views the looming arrival of the migrant caravan as a "law enforcement situation."


He said his Border Patrol agents and members of the military will be ready to rapidly deploy anywhere along the nearly 2,000-mile border to ensure that the caravan does not force its way across the border, as it did when it crossed from Guatemala into Mexico.


"We're not going to allow a large group to push into the United States unlawfully," McAleenan said. "We can't have it. It's not safe for anybody involved."


But the last migrant caravan that reached the United States earlier this year showed that most participants took the legal route by applying for asylum. According to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, 122 caravan members were caught illegally crossing the border, but 401 requested asylum, with 93 percent passing their initial screening.


Still, McAleenan said his hands are tied when asked how his officers can process more caravan members who present themselves at ports of entry, as the Department of Homeland Security has urged them to do.


"It’s not turning people away, it’s asking them to wait," he said.

McAleenan's tour of the border comes as the Trump administration searches for a way to dissuade, or halt, the migrant caravan that has been estimated at up to 10,000 people.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said during her own tour of the California border on Friday that "everything is on the table," which includes a proposal to halt all asylum requests along the southern border. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, under pressure from President Donald Trump, announced that caravan members who stay in the southern portion of his country would be given temporary work permits and access to public health benefits, education and shelters.



None of that has stopped the majority of caravan members, who continue their slow trek north. U.S. officials are updating their mass migration response plans throughout the border since it remains unclear where, or when, the group will arrive.


McAleenan, who oversees Customs officers who man the nation's ports of entry and Border Patrol agents who monitor the vast stretches in between, said the ideal place would be the San Ysidro port. Officials there finalized a multi-year, $750 million upgrade in August that vastly expanded the number of lanes available for cargo trucks, buses, personal vehicles and pedestrians. About 100,000 people cross through the port each day.


Despite improvements, the facility can only process about 100 asylum seekers each day, housing them in a series of holding cells built into the basement of the facility. McAleenan said they are often stuck there until space opens up in detention facilities run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement for adult, and the Department of Health and Human Services for minors.

n heads towards the United States

Homeland Security was able to quickly build temporary facilities to house family units as more and more of them reached the border in recent years. That included converting a former Walmart into a shelter for minors in Brownsville and erecting a tent city in the desert outside El Paso.


But McAleenan said no such plans are being considered to ramp up asylum applications. That will leave untold numbers of asylum-seekers in Mexico, where the government and non-governmental organizations have established shelters and waiting lists for people trying to enter the United States.


The commissioner said that reflects the changing nature of migration to the United States, which has shifted too fast for the U.S. government to catch up. People crossing the southern border have gone from mostly single, Mexican men looking for work in the United States to the Central American minors and family units that make up the bulk of border crossings today.


McAleenan said the only long-term solution is for Congress to allocate more money and overhaul the nation's immigration laws to adjust to the new face of immigration.


"The system is beyond capacity," he said. "We need different and more resources to manage what we’re seeing."


As a migrant caravan moves north through Mexico, others seeking asylum in the U.S. are already camped along the border waiting for their chance to make it across. Asylum seekers wait for weeks just to submit claims to U.S. officials. (Oct 25) AP

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/10/27/border-patrol-prepares-arrival-migrant-caravan-asylum/1777697002/