EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – El Paso saw more migrants coming between ports of entry last month than in November. The increase, however, was small compared to the numbers that stretched thin law enforcement capabilities and humanitarian resources in Eagle Pass, Texas, and Tucson, Arizona, data released Friday by U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported 33,970 migrant encounters in December compared to 22,404 in November in an El Paso Sector that stretches from Hudspeth County to the New Mexico-Arizona state line.
The Tucson Sector, covering most of eastern Arizona, reported 80,185 migrant encounters last month compared to 64,637 in November. A Del Rio Sector that includes Eagle Pass reported 71,095 encounters between ports of entry in December; that compares to 42,950 in November.
As previously reported, December 2023 posted a record 302,034 migrant encounters along the Southwest border of the United States. The head of CBP in a statement Friday said the numbers have come down 50% during the first two weeks of January, consistent with “seasonal trends and enhanced enforcement.”
Migrants again arriving atop cargo trains to the border
Migrant encounters in El Paso also have come down and have remained at around 600 a day, according to monitoring of the City of El Paso’s migrant dashboard website. However, large groups of migrants have arrived in Juarez in the past few days and signs point to smugglers again encouraging migrants stuck in Mexico to head for the border wall.
El Diario on Friday reported the possible arrival of 350 people atop trains to Juarez intent on crossing the border. The Juarez newspaper three days earlier had reported the arrival of 300 more. It quoted a Venezuelan national as saying, “All along the way you hear, ‘Gate 36, Gate 36. They open it and let people in.’”
Venezuelans, Central Americans setting up camp in Chihuahua City
In addition, a KTSM/Border Report camera crew obtained exclusive images of a new migrant camp that just went up in Chihuahua City, some 225 miles south of the border. At night, it’s been housing between 70 and 150 citizens of Venezuela, Ecuador and Honduras taken down from cargo trains by Mexican authorities and waiting for a chance to sneak into another train headed for the border.
Officials there told reporters they distributed bottled water and about 150 blankets to the migrants for humanitarian reasons.
In El Paso, the Border Patrol confirmed that a group of approximately 200 people arrived at Gate 36 on Thursday after cutting concertina wire on the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande or placing cardboard or clothing to come across illegally.
“Migrants should not listen to the lies of smugglers and make the dangerous journey, only to be turned back,” the agency told Border Report in an email. “The U.S. Border Patrol continues to enforce immigration law and applies consequences to those who do not have a legal basis to remain (in the country).”
CBP, in its statement on nationwide encounters, sent a similar message. It said 472,000 ineligible migrants have been removed since last May. That includes 78,000 members of family units.
Mexican officials in Juarez agree the flow of people coming to the border intent on crossing into the United States has slowed.
“It has diminished a lot because of actions implemented by the federal government, but also because it’s a time of the year with low (migrant) flows. We’ll see what happens in 2024,” said Santiago Gonzalez Reyes, head of Juarez’s Human Rights Office.
The federal actions include the deployment of additional Mexican National Guard troops to the Mexico-U.S. and the Mexico-Guatemala borders — mostly as a visual deterrent and to take them off the hands of smugglers — and a crackdown on people riding in unsafe conditions atop trains.
When asked about the increased arrivals of the past few days and the new camp in Chihuahua City, Gonzalez referred questions to the National Migration Institute, or INM. He said Juarez migrant shelters are mostly empty, with the Kiki Romero Municipal Gym at about 10% capacity and the nonprofit Casa del Migrante about a quarter full.
Gonzalez said the municipal government provides humanitarian assistance to migrants regardless of where they come from.
Juarez Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar said it’s important border residents know that migrants are being taken care of, despite limited government resources. “I’m impressed and surprised when they tell me all the resources that the people of Juarez deliver at the shelters. That’s why when you hear on the news that ‘the world is going to end’ because there’s no money (for the migrant crisis), that’s is not true. We have the support of the federal government, the support of international organizations and the support of the community,” the mayor said.
(ProVideo contributed to this report.)
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