A Venezuelan flag was planted in the middle of the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border at Eagle Pass before it was promptly taken down by Texas officials this weekend.
It is estimated that as many as 100,000 migrants have entered Eagle Pass, a small border town with a population of less than 30,000, in the past week. Most have been released after being processed and will remain free while they wait for their asylum appointment – a process that can take years.
According to local reports, most of the asylum seekers are Venezuelans who say they were forced to leave their home country due to the South American nation’s economic and social collapse under the socialist regime of Nicolas Maduro.
As the crisis continues, the Mexican and U.S. governments and the United Nations are considering establishing a temporary pre-screening program for approximately 40,000 asylum seekers from Haiti, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba who are currently in southern Mexico, where there are no mobile U.S. are refugees. consulates to do this.
According to Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Barcena, UN migration and refugee agencies would assess whether the migrants qualify for asylum before they go to a mobile US consulate.
A Venezuelan flag was planted in the middle of the Rio Grande at the US-Mexico border at Eagle Pass before it was promptly taken down by Texas officials this weekend.
Texas Department of Public Safety officials are seen taking down the Venezuelan flag
It is estimated that as many as 100,000 migrants have entered Eagle Pass in the past week
As many as 232,972 migrants crossed the US-Mexico border in August, an increase from previous months.
Additionally, around two million migrants are believed to have crossed the US southern border in 2023, with many citing Biden’s lax policies as the reason. Another 500,000 could cross by the end of the year.
Recently, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced that another 800 troops would be sent to the border to help with the crisis, along with the more than 2,500 National Guardsmen already present.
A common route for many migrants involves hopping aboard U.S.-bound freight trains to cross the border. This has become so common that Mexico’s largest railway company has announced a suspension of services.
Those coming from further south travel mainly on foot, forcing them to cross the treacherous Darien Gap, a jungle area in Panama seen as a path between South and Central America.
However, these troops are not on the front lines and are reduced to administrative roles, allowing Customs and Border Protection officers to do more work with migrants.
Last week, Biden announced plans to quickly process more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants who have crossed the border since July 31, to provide some relief from the growing numbers facing underfunded border officials.
As many as 232,972 migrants crossed the US-Mexico border in August, an increase from previous months
A migrant family from Venezuela reacts after breaking through a barbed wire barricade into the US. They say they are fleeing hunger and repression under Nicolas Maduro’s regime
Migrants are seen waiting to be processed in Eagle Pass, Texas
There are currently approximately 242,700 TPS beneficiaries under Venezuela’s existing TPS status, who will be able to stay for an additional 18 months. There are another approximately 472,000 Venezuelan nationals who are now eligible for the scheme.
Many of the asylum seekers who enter the country through Texas end up being bused to progressive sanctuary cities like Chicago and New York City by conservative governors like Texas’ Gregg Abbot as they protest what they see as Democrats’ open-arm immigration policies .
The wave of asylum seekers has caused chaos in New York, where the Roosevelt Hotel has become the holding center for migrants seeking shelter.
Democratic Mayor Eric Adams is facing an angry backlash after more than 110,000 migrants have poured into the city since the spring of 2022. Many of the migrants have been transported north from Republican border states in an attempt to prove that Democrats’ open gun policies are harmful. a disaster.
NYC has a legal obligation to provide shelter for those who come there, and Adams has desperately turned to a variety of city landmarks, such as hotels, makeshift shelters, and temporary housing, as short-term solutions.
New York officials have been sounding the alarm for months about their inability to right the ship, with Adams warning that his office estimates the issue will cost the city about $12 billion in just three years.
Adams warned that the city’s services will be affected by the incredible additional spending in the budget. He has previously stated that the city plans to cut services such as library hours, meals for seniors and free day care for three-year-olds.