EL PASO, TEXAS: Border shelters in El Paso, Texas are already being “overwhelmed” by the vast numbers of migrants they are facing, even before the end of Title 42 later this week, officials who work at the shelters tell Fox News Digital.
“It’s just a very overwhelming volume that we’re seeing right now. So I don’t think it’s that we have a problem with processing migrants. It’s just migrants in this capacity, the systems being overwhelmed, the shelters are being overwhelmed. Travel is being overwhelmed,” Nicole Reulet, director of marketing at the Rescue Mission of El Paso said.
El Paso has been one of the hardest hit areas of the border. This week, officials launched a “targeted enforcement operation” after there were over 2,000 migrants camped out on the streets.
It’s reflective of a situation border-wide, where sectors have seen enormous amounts of migrants coming to the border ahead of the end of the Title 42 public health order later this week.
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The order has been used since March 2020 by both the Trump and Biden administration to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, with the order set to end, migrants have began making their way to the border. Fox News reported on Wednesday that there have been more than 10,000 encounters a day across the border.
Administration officials have warned migrants not to make the dangerous journey north, and have also increased funding to NGO partners who assist when migrants are released into the interior.
But NGO officials who Fox spoke to say that they have been facing significantly large numbers for months.
“For us, this started in August of 2022 and then it never did come to a stop, but it became much more manageable up until about two weeks ago,” John Martin, deputy director for the Opportunity Center for the Homeless, told Fox News Digital.
He said that things started to change when one day there were 70 migrants in an alley near the center, which they moved into the parking lot but couldn’t bring inside the center as they were at capacity.
“The following day that number grew to 150. And within about a week it grew to over 800,” he said.
“The fact of the matter is we wanted to maintain our mission, and that is to work with all. But we got to a point where we simply had too many people and it just wasn’t conceivable,” he said.
Reulet said that she expected her organization to be at capacity by Thursday — and noted the toll it is taking on staff.
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“Even though there have been some drops in numbers to give us some breathing room, our staff is running on fumes just because of the sheer number of people there are to serve,” she said.
Martin said that there was a lot of uncertainty as to what is coming next.
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“I’ve heard different numbers, but the numbers are all staggering, even though they may vary depending upon: are we looking at 500 a day or are we looking at a thousand or are we looking at 1500? Nobody has the answer to that so I’ve sort of jokingly started saying that the first volunteer I need is somebody with a crystal ball that can actually tell me what’s going to happen.”
He said that as much as they have prepared as best they can, it may not be enough depending on what happens next.
“I will tell you, because of the staggering numbers that could be involved, that no matter how prepared we are, we may not be prepared enough. Because we simply don’t know what’s coming in,” he said.
To hear more from El Paso shelter directors, click here.