Migrants converging on El Paso fuel calls for border crackdown

 

Increased migrant border crossings near El Paso are drawing attention back to the border, as Congress grapples with must-pass end of year legislation that could include an immigration deal.

...The crisis in El Paso, where shelters are saturated and some migrants are being forced to sleep in the streets, showcases how an overwhelmed federal asylum program has been unable to keep up with growing hemispheric migration flows.

...The combination of a growing external supply of migrants and an overwhelmed system remains unaddressed in U.S. lawmaking, but the endless political debate over immigration has created its own bogeymen and proposals on how to counter them.

...Proponents of stricter border measures have centered their appeals both on the desires of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) and Border Patrol staff, and on a perceived need to minimize the entry of foreign nationals into the United States through the asylum process.

...The Biden administration, which is appealing the Title 42 ruling in court, has been leaking details of future plans to limit the number of people who qualify for asylum, essentially delivering another punch to a dilapidated system...more