Page 6 - ARUBA TODAY

A6 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 28 March 2019
U.S. will reassign border inspectors as illegal crossings rise

In Arizona, the ports where
most of the country's pro-
duce comes through have
struggled with low staffing,
drawing the ire of trade or-
ganizations that say it slows
down commerce.
In El Paso, drivers can wait
for hours to cross back to
the U.S.
The reassignment of border
inspectors follows the Bor-
der Patrol's unusual move
to close all highway check-
points in its El Paso sector,
which stretches across 268
miles (429 kilometers) in Tex-
as and New Mexico.
U.S. officials say the check-
point closures are a tempo-
rary measure to handle the
increase in families and un-
accompanied children en-
tering the country illegally.
The orange traffic cones
used to divert traffic off In-
terstate 10 into the cano-
py-covered border check-
point west of Las Cruces,
New Mexico, now block
This Tuesday, March 26, 2019, photo shows a border patrol checkpoint, north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, that U.S. immigration au-
thorities have closed and have reassigned agents to repurpose inspection areas to handle an influx of Central Americans arriving the entrance, signaling to
at the Mexican border. drivers that they don't have
Associated Press to stop.
The Border Patrol operates
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The calm, has quickly emerged will have arrived as families, A few hundred yards from 34 permanent checkpoints
Trump administration said as the second-busiest corri- including 40,000 children. where McAleenan spoke, along the entire Mexican
Wednesday it will tempo- dor for illegal crossings after The commissioner said the about 600 migrants were border and another 103
rarily reassign several hun- Texas' Rio Grande Valley. border was at "a break- held in a football field-sized "tactical" stops, often cones
dred border inspectors as "There will be a slowdown ing point," language that is pen lined with concertina and signs that appear for
beleaguered forces al- in the processing of trade. consistent with the adminis- wire under the shade of brief periods, the Govern-
ready stationed along the There will be wait times in tration's portrayal of a state a bridge that connects El ment Accountability Office
U.S.-Mexico border strug- our pedestrian and passen- of crisis. President Donald Paso to Juarez. When re- said in a 2017 report.
gle to keep pace with the ger vehicle lanes." Trump last month declared porters arrived, migrants While checkpoints account
growing number of migrant McAleenan spoke in front a national emergency to lined the fence and some for only a sliver of Border
families who are showing of the metal fencing that obtain military funds for yelled they were hungry. Patrol arrests — 2 percent
up at the border in poor separates El Paso from construction of his prized Minutes later, a catering from 2013 to 2016 — they
health and turning them- Juarez, Mexico, after a border wall. van delivered ham-and- also handled 43 percent of
selves in to agents to re- delay that followed the The political polarization cheese and picadillo sand- drug busts during that time,
quest asylum. apprehension of several continued to play out wiches. according to the report.
Customs and Border Pro- migrants who had crossed Wednesday in El Paso as The 750 inspectors will be At a gun range operated
tection Commissioner Kev- a shallow spot on the Rio a small group of protesters drawn from offices across by the City of Las Cruces
in McAleenan said the re- Grande nearby and turned erected an inflatable cari- the entire U.S. border. They and used by Border Patrol
assignment of 750 border themselves in. cature of the president and will remain inspectors in agents, grandmother and
inspectors would mean lon- Arrests along the Mexican shouted in Spanish "you are name but will assist in bor- Picacho Gun Club volun-
ger waits at crossings as the border jumped to 66,450 in not alone" to the migrants der patrol, effectively shift- teer Cindy Pollock said she
busy Easter holiday nears February, up 149 percent being led away. ing work hours from ports of first noticed the checkpoint
but that it was necessary to from a year earlier, while ar- While arrests are still well entry to detention work. closures Thursday.
address what he called "an rests in the Border Patrol's El below highs of the early Nationwide, Customs and She thought the agents
operational crisis." The reas- Paso sector, which stretch- 2000s, the surge of families Border Protection has might be off training. When
signed officers will process es across New Mexico and and children has tested U.S. 23,000 officers working at she heard they were reas-
migrants, provide transpor- much of West Texas, were authorities. 328 ports of entry, includ- signed to process migrants,
tation and perform hospital about eight times higher Customs and Border Pro- ing at airports around the she wasn't surprised.
watches for migrants who than they were a year ago. tection is taking more than country. But the agency "There's only so many of-
require medical attention. March is shaping up to be 60 migrants to the hospi- has had the most trouble ficers and there's nothing
It is unknown when they will even busier. McAleenan tal each day, McAleenan recruiting officers to work they can do," said Pollock,
return to their regular du- said the agency was on said. In the previous four at southern border, where who believes the current
ties. track to make 100,000 ar- days, he said infants have crossings were under- wave of migrants draws
"There will be impacts to rests or denials of entry dur- had 105-degree fevers, a staffed before the current resources away from anti-
traffic at the border," McA- ing the month, up about 30 2-year-old suffered seizures surge of migrant families, crime efforts. "My husband
leenan said at a news con- percent from February and in the desert and a 40-year- largely due to low recruit- said 'Boy, just think about
ference in El Paso, Texas, about double the same pe- old man suffering organ ment and high rates of at- how many drugs are get-
which, after years of relative riod last year. About 55,000 failure refused surgery. trition. ting through today.'"q