MP Tony Gonzales describes the border situation as grim and shares footage of the migrant center
A Texas congressman representing hundreds of miles along the southern border described the situation in El Paso as “grim” Sunday morning as he provided footage of an overrun migrant processing center.
During an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation, GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales said the conditions he saw at a processing center “he had never seen before” with more than 500 migrants in a “capsule” which normally accommodates about 100 people.
“You know, I was in El Paso just a few days ago and what I saw at the migrant center I had never seen before. I’ve visited the processing center there many times,” he told host Margaret Brennan, adding, “There’s a bathroom, the smell is terrible. And there are eight capsules in there. So these are the good conditions.
“Out just over the hill there are a thousand, just over 1,000 migrants waiting in outdoor conditions, not to mention the people waiting at the bridge and elsewhere.
“It’s a very bad situation in El Paso.”
Cellphone footage played by CBS and provided by Gonzales shows migrants from a few days ago crammed into a room where many are lying side by side on cots while others are standing and huddled together.
Discarded clothes, shoes and bags of migrants crossing the US-Mexico border wall.
Migrants pass through a gap in the U.S.-Mexico border wall Sunday, December 18, 2022 in El Paso, Texas.
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Officials fear the situation could get worse after Title 42 ends.
Migrants cross the Rio Grande River from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso to seek asylum on Sunday, December 18.
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“What I saw shocked me and I wanted to share it with the world. It’s not about politics,” Gonzales said. “It’s not about you trying to create that image that isn’t there. That’s the reality. Those are the facts. We’re not even at our worst yet.”
Fears continue to grow that once Title 42 — and a Trump-era COVID-pandemic-related order allowing border officials to quickly boot migrants back across the border — ends on Dec. 21, that even more people will flood the border.
The mayor of El Paso even declared a state of emergency after weeks of fighting calls to take the move as the border community continues to face severe stress from the influx of migrants.
“As you know, the city has declared a state of emergency,” Gonzales told CBS. “That’s what you do in a hurricane, fire or earthquake.
“What is happening is a hurricane of migrants and everyone is affected.”
https://nypost.com/2022/12/18/rep-tony-gonzales-calls-border-situation-dire-shares-footage-of-migrant-center/ MP Tony Gonzales describes the border situation as grim and shares footage of the migrant center
