Almost 300 newly arrived migrants were released by officials in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday illustrating how border cities are struggling to cope with a huge surge in arrivals during the past week.
It coincided with the end of Title 42, and the lifting of a Trump-era restriction designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The result was that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had been holding as many as 28,000 migrants at its facilities, far beyond its capacity, according to a local official.
On Thursday, the mayor of Yuma announced that CBP was planning releases in the city of migrants who had not undergone full processing, although he insisted they had been ‘vetted.’
On Friday afternoon, three white buses with blacked out windows pulled into the Yuma Public Safety Training Facility close to the city’s airport.
Almost 300 newly arrived migrants were released by officials in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday illustrating how border cities are struggling to cope with a huge surge
Migrants were seen boarding buses in Yuma, Arizona and coincided with the end of Title 42, and the lifting of a Trump-era restriction designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19
On Friday afternoon, three white buses with blacked out windows pulled into the Yuma Public Safety Training Facility close to the city’s airport
The location was a closely held secret, but DailyMail.com was on hand to witness the release. A briefing document said 141 were being freed.
Streams of people could be seen climbing out of the buses and being directed to a shaded holding area, where there was at least some shelter from 96F temperatures.
From there, it is understood they will be put on buses to take them to Phoenix.Â
It followed a similar release of about 140 people at a separate location in Yuma and at nearby San Luis in the morning.Â
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines said the process was an admission that federal authorities simply could not cope.Â
‘This is decompressing and the federal govt is relying on the local and state government to do its job,’ said Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines.
‘It’s another failure of the Biden Administration to manage a problem they created with their open border policy.’
A day earlier, Mayor Douglas Nicholls urged the people of Yuma to stay calm.
‘These are people that have been vetted to at least to the point where Border Patrol has issued them notice to appear papers wherever they end up living in the country,’ he said.
A group of nuns were seen distributing food to migrants resting along the train tracks in Huehuetoca, Mexico, Friday as they look to board a freight train heading north as the mass influx continues
Tents are pictured running along the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros. The Texan city of Brownsville is on the other side of the river
A woman serving coffee inside the migrant camp in Matamoros on Friday shows how life is for those hoping to cross the border
Migrants encamped along the banks of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, across the river from Brownsville, Texas, are pictured on Friday being given rice and beans by a church group
‘They are to follow up through the judicial process. Unfortunately, that process is years three to seven years to get through that whole process.’
And he insisted that the people released did not pose a risk.Â
‘I ask everyone, all of our citizens to remain calm. There’s not people that have that are convicted of crimes that are being released,’ he said.Â
There were immediate hopes that Friday may have brought an easing in the crisis.
After a week of elevated arrivals, the border wall outside Yuma was eerily quiet on Friday morning.
The Biden administration had stepped up messaging that it had imposed a new tough regime to turn away anyone who had not used a legal route of arrival.
Chris Clem, the former Yuma Sector Chief Border Patrol Agent, said it was too early to celebrate.Â
‘The administration I’m sure they are working feverishly behind the scenes with Mexico. I’m sure they’re doing a lot of things to manage this,’ he said
‘And I do believe the will control things and will play things out.
‘Then the migrants may be you know, trying to figure it out. Do they want to get caught up in the rush? Do they want to wait a few days and see how things play out?’
Title 42 was activated by the Trump administration to stem the spread of COVID-19. It is a public health measure that allows border authorities to immediately expel arrivals before they could even claim asylum.
Members of the Texas National Guard keep watch from the U.S. side as migrants attempted to cross over after the end of Title 42Â
Migrants were seen protesting at dawn after the suspension of permits to transit through the Mexico at the Provisional Attention Center of the National Institute of Migration (INM), in Tapachula, Mexico
But with the pandemic over, it finally expired at midnight eastern time on Thursday.Â
The Biden administration rushed through new restrictions, effectively restoring Trump’s ‘transit ban,’ which allows for the deportation of arrivals who did not seek asylum in countries through which they traveled.
Migrants can legally present themselves at the border if they used a mobile app, CBP One, to register in advance.
But there were snags. An eleventh hour legal challenge blocked plans to more quickly release migrants from Border Patrol detention.
Administration officials also said it was too early to declare victory.
‘Overnight, we saw similar patterns to what we’ve seen over the past several days. We continue to encounter high levels of non-citizens at the border but we did not see a substantial increase overnight or an influx at midnight,’ Blas Nuñez-Neto, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary for border and immigration policy, told reporters on a briefing call.
