CBP speaks about caravan processing on the border
CBP speaks about caravan processing on the border
by Sydney Hernandez, CBS 4 News
Saturday, November 10th 2018
CBP officials are calling it Operation Secure Line, where hundreds of officers, agents, and troops are monitoring and prepping for the Migrant Caravan carrying thousands of Central Americans headed for the United States.
If the migrant caravan does try to come through the United States through the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge they will be met by Customs Officers and the U.S Military and wait to be processed.
"We're doing everything we can," said RGV Border Patrol Acting Chief Raul Ortiz.
Customs and Border Protection Officers are making sure they're ready if the caravan tries to pass through an RGV Port of Entry.
"We treat migrants with human dignity and respect. However, we will not tolerate and will not put up with any forcible type of entry into the United States and we will do whatever is necessary to control our borders," said David Higgerson, Customs and Border Protections Director of Field Operations.
CBP has already approved overtime for Border Patrol Agents and more than 3,100 hundred officers will be working on the port of entry to help with the caravan, along with thousands of troops.
"If we see increases at the port of entries, we will respond. If we see them come in between the port of entry, we have air marine and customs who will help Border Patrol," said Ortiz.
However, the processing of the migrants will take days, as the facilities at the Hidalgo International Bridge only has 14 processing facilities. 19 migrants are processed at a time and only 49 of them can be processed in one day at the Hidalgo International Bridge.
"You have family units, single males, none of these can be combined. You have possible criminals, worst case scenario someone shows up with chicken pox and that shuts us down for three weeks period," said Higgerson.
With all that waiting for processing, it's unclear whether the migrants will wait as Mexican officials have stated they will not let migrants sleep on the bridge overnight.
CBP does not have space for them either.
"The detention spaces in the Valley are almost to their max. We have consistently about 3,000 people in custody, which is about 400 more than we would want to hold," said Ortiz.
Border Patrol say they are working with Catholic Charities of RGV and Mexican officials to see where the migrants can stay during the processing stages.
Chief Ortiz also tells CBS 4 Valley, no families will be separated during the asylum-seeking process.
If the caravan takes a different port of entry route other than the RGV, the resources will be deployed to that area to help secure the border.
https://valleycentral.com/news/local...-on-the-border
