Residents of El Paso Help Migrants Crossing the Border

For Rosa Falcón it was “inhumane” to see hundreds of migrants sleeping on the streets of the US city of El Paso, Texas, with temperatures down to below zero, so one night she decided to give a family shelter in her own home. And she hasn’t stopped since then.

“With everything they have experienced, leaving them adrift like this, on the street, seems illogical and inhuman to me,” Falcón said during one of his now customary nightly rounds through the center of the city, a neighbor of the Mexican Ciudad Juárez, that accumulates decades of history and migratory tradition.

More than 53,000 migrants turned themselves in to border authorities in this sector of the border in October alone, an increase of 280% compared to the same month last year, and the largest increase in the entire southern border of the United States.

Many arrive barely wearing anything, wet or dirty after crossing the Darien jungle in Panama or the Rio Grande, which separates Mexico from the United States. And in El Paso, while they search for a way to buy tickets to go to other cities, they face freezing temperatures in this precarious way, even having to sleep on the street.

“Your heart breaks, especially when there are children,” says Falcón, a teacher at a school who at night has built a support network with other volunteers and local churches.

“Abbott buses”

A migratory peak was registered in the last days, which led the mayor, Oscar Leeser, to decree a state of emergency to expedite resources.

On Saturday night, after the announcement, a bus arrived at the bus terminal in downtown El Paso, a frequent stop for migrants with few resources seeking to continue on their way to other cities.

“Those who do not have tickets until tomorrow can come with us,” said a municipal official as they got off the bus, who explained that they would be taken to a hotel to sleep under the state of emergency.

But many migrants watched, immobile, afraid. “We have heard so many things,” said Santiago, a 23-year-old Colombian. “How can we trust? What if they take us to another state?” added the young man who says he left his country due to the economic situation.

“These are not the bad buses,” another volunteer tells them, who does not give her name, but offers blankets, masks and guidance.

“They are afraid, they don’t want to get on Abott’s buses,” the young woman explained to AFP, referring to the Texas governor, Republican Greg Abbott, who promoted the transfer of migrants by land to other states without properly clarifying the conditions of the bus. travel.

Fear was stronger than the cold and few accepted the offer.

“I’ve been through so much already. What’s more a cold night? I am very afraid to get on a bus ”, insisted Santiago, who is waiting at the terminal for a consignment from his family to buy a ticket to Lowell, Massachusetts, his final destination almost 4,000 km from El Paso.