Texas Border Patrol facility overwhelmed with illegal immigrants as Title 42 expiration looms
Video footage obtained by Fox News shows a Border Patrol facility in El Paso, Texas, overwhelmed with migrant arrivals.
State Rep. Tony Gonzales shot the video at the Border Patrol Central Processing Center on Friday. At that time, around 4,600 migrants were in federal custody despite capacity being only 1,040.
The footage shows migrants crammed into the processing facility, many of them sprawled out on mattresses on the floor.
A voice of the intercom can be heard calling out names while the migrants wait.
Gonzales’ video came a day before the City of El Paso declared a state of emergency as border crossings have overwhelmed law enforcement personnel.
Mayor Oscar Lesser announced the state of emergency during a press conference, saying he could no longer keep residents safe.
‘I said from the beginning that I would call it when I felt that either our asylum seekers or community were not safe,’ Lesser said.
El Paso, like many towns along the U.S.-Mexico border, continues to witness an influx of migrants into its community. The city is also expecting a surge of migrants when Title 42, a Trump-era immigration policy that reduced the number of asylum seekers the U.S. would allow under the COVID pandemic, expires on Dec. 21.
Fox News’ Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.