Immigrants taken to hotels, schools after being dropped off in downtown El Paso

by Simon Williams
Monday, December 24th 2018



More than 200 immigrants spent the first hours of Christmas Eve at a Greyhound bus station in downtown El Paso after they were reportedly dropped off by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Sunday night.


EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — More than 200 immigrants spent the first hours of Christmas Eve at a Greyhound bus station in downtown El Paso after they were reportedly dropped off by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Sunday night.

KFOX14 was first at the scene and watched as adult migrants, small children, and infants were loaded onto Sun Metro buses and eventually taken to hotels and schools throughout the Borderland.

The immigrants were dropped off in groups on Sunday night, reportedly by ICE.

Several of the immigrants told KFOX14 they had not eaten all day and with no money to buy food, make calls, or buy a bus ticket to meet with family members living in the U.S., they shared their concerns.

“In the middle of the night, they dropped us off here,” said Roberto, an immigrant from Guatemala.

“We don’t have anything,” he said, “nothing to make calls, nothing to buy a ticket.”

Carlos, an immigrant from Honduras feeling a similar sentiment, said, “We’re not in our own country, we don’t know where we are.”

He continued, “But we have confidence in God that we’ll all be OK.”

Shortly after word got out, El Pasoans showed up at the Greyhound Station with pizza, fruit, and water for the immigrants.

They waited at the station for hours. They were told there was nowhere to take them and that the Annunciation House of El Paso was already full.

Very few immigrants were able to have family members living in the U.S. buy them a bus or plane ticket.

For the large majority of immigrants, though, Sun Metro was called in and the immigrants were put onto five buses.

The Annunciation House says those buses would take the migrants to schools and hotels throughout the Borderland for shelter.

The last of the buses left just before 2:00 a.m. Monday. Others waited overnight in the Greyhound lobby for their morning buses.

KFOX14 reached out to ICE, but with the government shutdown, the spokesperson is not required to work.

Those wishing to donate can bring underwear, shirts in small sizes, tote bags, and hygiene products to the Annunciation House in downtown El Paso.

https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/immigr...wntown-el-paso