Over 1,500 people crossed the U.S.–Mexico border illegally into El Paso, Texas in the early hours of Dec. 12, according to video from the scene and local media, in what reports say could be one of the biggest single crossings ever in the region.
Footage from the border shared on social media by news outlet El Paso Matters showed a massive group of migrants trekking through the water toward the other riverbank overnight.
Once on the other side of the river, the illegal aliens waited in a long line to be processed by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials.
Video showed people huddling by fires trying to keep warm as they awaited processing, while other footage—a pan across the line of people waiting in line—revealed just how massive the group was that crossed the border into the United States.
CBP said in a statement on Monday that the jump in encounters in the El Paso sector meant that Border Patrol agents from other sectors had been called in to assist with processing.
Sleeping on the Streets
The individuals who crossed Sunday night were part of a group migrants who were escorted by Mexican state police from the city of Jiménez to Juárez in a caravan of 20 buses, according to El Paso Matters, which estimated the total size of the group that crossed overnight at over 1,500 people.
The aliens said they were from Ecuador, Nicaragua, and Peru, according to the outlet, which estimated that this may have been the largest single border crossing in the region in history.
More than 5,600 illegal aliens were held as of Dec. 13 in the Border Patrol Central Processing Center, according to a city of El Paso dashboard. The center has a capacity of around 3,500.
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said in a Twitter post that the processing center was filled beyond capacity and that some people were sleeping on city streets.
“Migrants sleeping on the streets of El Paso! This is what the New Ellis Island looks like: 611 migrants out on the streets because the NGOs are out of capacity; every Border Patrol agent in processing centers overcapacity with 5,000 folks. This is exactly what Democrats wanted.”
Republicans have long accused the Democrats of advocating for an open-borders policy, though the Biden administration has repeatedly denied this claim.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has acknowledged that the situation along the southern border is “difficult,” while insisting that the Biden administration wants a “safe, legal, and orderly immigration system that is based on our bedrock priorities: to keep our borders secure, address the plight of children as the law requires, and enable families to be together.”
Mayorkas said recently that Republican rhetoric claiming that the “border is open” was helping fuel the influx.
“The political cry that the border is open is music to the smugglers’ ears, because they take that political rhetoric and they market it” to desperate migrants, Mayorkas told The Dallas Morning News.
BREAKING: A huge migrant caravan of over 1,000 people crossed illegally into El Paso, TX last night, making it the largest single group we have ever seen. The city of El Paso reports Border Patrol now has over 5,000 in custody & has released hundreds to city streets. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/ewUQX757Lt
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 12, 2022
Still, when President Joe Biden took office, one of his first actions was to cancel the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy.
That rule meant that asylum-seekers were required to remain in Mexico while their claims for asylum were processed, with figures showing that the policy discouraged false asylum claims and decreased the flow of illegal immigration.
‘Major Surge’
Peter Jaquez, acting chief patrol agent of the El Paso sector, which covers 264 miles of border between the United States and Mexico, said that the sector experienced a “major surge” in unlawful border crossings in recent days.
“Over the weekend, the El Paso Sector experienced a major surge in illegal crossings, with a 3-day average of 2,460 daily encounters, primarily through the downtown area of El Paso,” Jaquez said in a post on Twitter.
“We will continue to keep the public informed as the situation evolves,” he added.
Breaking! Over the weekend, the El Paso Sector experienced a major surge in illegal crossings, with a 3-day average of 2,460 daily encounters, primarily through the downtown area of El Paso. We will continue to keep the public informed as the situation evolves. pic.twitter.com/V2pOO6Y31N
— Peter Jaquez (@USBPChiefEPT) December 12, 2022
CBP said in a Monday post on Facebook that, over the past 48 hours, there had been over 16,000 illegal alien encounters at the border.
That’s an average of 8,000 people per day caught trying to cross the border illegally.
Officials Brace for Surge of Illegal Aliens
U.S. officials are bracing for what could be an even bigger surge of illegal aliens crossing over the southern border as the Title 42 restriction that were enacted under former President Donald Trump are set to end on Dec. 21.
The Department of Homeland Security estimates that 9,000 to 14,000 migrants could try to enter the country illegally each day when the policy ends.
Created as part of the Public Health Service Act under President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Title 42 was designed to prevent the introduction of contagious diseases in the United States.
The policy was issued by the Trump administration in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Illegal aliens processed under the policy are not permitted to request asylum in the United States and are removed from the country.
On paper, Title 42 covers the Canada and Mexico borders and aliens of all nationalities. It has mostly been used along the southern border to remove illegal aliens from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador from the United States.
Almost 2.4 million illegal aliens were stopped by U.S. agents along the southern border in fiscal year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30.
Federal statistics indicate that more than 1 million of the encounters led to the immigrants being removed from the country under Title 42.
Once Title 42 is lifted, the number of illegal aliens that Border Patrol agents must process will “likely be double or greater,” according to a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General report released in September.
It is not clear what the Biden administration plans to do when Title 42 is terminated on Dec. 21.
Jeff Louderback contributed to this report.
Turn them around and refuse entry! Illegal immigration laws are still on the books. Enforce Them! We cease to be a COUNTRY without having BORDERS. Where the Hell are Americas Patriots? They are sure NOT in our Congress or Senate!
Maybe if the illegal government refuses to change and act legally, they should not be surprised when THE PEOPLE arise and change government,,,,back to what it was originally designed to be. Surely they must realize that if THE PEOPLE arise for another Capitol congregating demonstration, it will be armed to the teeth while more than half the military and police forces refuse to support the power abusers of our freedoms. “Yet still the ancient foe, doth seek to work us woe, Thier craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate, on eath are no their equals”,,,,in cunning and deception. The good and competent majority is tiring of being manipulated by the small inept minority who only get elected by craft and deception. The best and brightest have stood on the sidelines watching to see how far they will go. Once they join the battle the weak and corrupt will fall like leaves before an oncoming winter.
IF this isn’t an invasion. WHAT Exactly is?
We have a treasonous, destructive, socialist Democrat Party ruling this government and these dangerous socialist enemies are doing everything they can to destroy our country.
This Treasonous, dishonest, destructive, Socialist Democrat Party’s objective is to deliberately lie, cheat and steal. To disregard the U.S. Constitution and our laws, in order to take total control of the American people by their restricting U.S. citizens their constitutional rights and freedoms. Stopping oil production, increase Spending, Taxes and the inflation cost of everything and bring American commerce and economy to its knees and to promote Socialism, enforced by their political DOJ and their FBI and IRS police gestapo.
Then access power and retain it by any means available –
No matter the costs to the people, the government or the nation.
This treasonous, hateful, destructive, immoral, socialist Democrat Party, their RINOs and their corrupt, demented puppet president has become our country’s most destructive and deadliest ENEMY!
Evidently, citizens are not at our border by actually watching an invasion taking place. For all intents are purposes we have been sold out by BOTH political parties on the immigration issue both legal and illegal. Other than Trump and Ike, no Presidents have made any real effort to secure our borders in over 50 years. For the most past citizens didn’t care, they did not force our government to obey its own immigration laws.
Rome did not die a peaceful death. It was assassinated. The same is happening to us as we are being pushed slowly into the trash heap of history. Not only on immigration but many other aspects of what the Founding Fathers left us to build a great nation. Like other great nations in the past, we did this to ourselves. One big difference being, we can still save our nation if we chose to do so.
AND You can bet if the LOCALS took matters into their own hands, to STOP this invasion.. IT WOULD BE THEM our so-called justice dept, WENT AFTER.. Not the invaders.
And Biden can’t go to the border because he “has more important things to do”.
Yea, finding out new ways to RUIN This nation…
CAN WE Even survive till 2024, Assuming of course, that the GOP can get a win then…
Good God. We are losing our country.
It is so sad to see this country going to hell like it is. We have slid completely into the moral sewer. I guess it’s true, you get the government you deserve.
I wonder, HAD reagan stuck to his guns back in the 80s, saying “NO AMNESTY TILL THE border is completely secure”, and we had BUILT THE WALL BACK THEN.. Would we be in this mess now, with another 20+ million invaders in our nation, and 2+ mil each year coming in??