Venezuelans stuck in El Paso without permits hold protest at County Courthouse, asking for travel documents
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect how courthouses and churches are usually exempt from immigration enforcement actions.
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Border agents in the past few days have apprehended hundreds of unvetted migrants trying to get out of El Paso, mostly aboard commercial buses.
The U.S. Border Patrol reports 420 encounters since Christmas involving either private vehicles engaged in human smuggling or foreign nationals who got on buses the with the intent of traveling deep into the United States without authorization. Border agents detained at least 304 of them at highway checkpoints along Interstate 10 in Las Cruces and other cities considered gateways to the interior of the country.
“If (residents) are planning to assist migrants in exiting town, in facilitating transportation to migrants, they are committing a crime and could be processed under (U.S. Code) 1324, which is harboring and alien smuggling,” said Carlos A. Rivera, acting supervisory agent for the U.S. Border Patrol. “If people in El Paso want to assist these migrants, there are several non-government organizations they can volunteer at.”
The spike comes as groups of Venezuelans and Central Americans who came over the border wall in recent weeks now find themselves stuck in El Paso. Several migrants gathered on Wednesday in front of the El Paso County Courthouse asking to be allowed to continue on to jobs in Florida and New York.
https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/hundreds-of-migrants-trying-to-leave-border-apprehended-at-highway-checkpoints/
