Migrants Moved Out of Holding Pen Under El Paso Bridge

By Simon Romero
March 31, 2019

Federal immigration officials appear to have cleared out an enclosure under a bridge in El Paso where they were detaining hundreds of families of asylum seekers, following an outcry over the conditions at the site.

But authorities appeared to have shifted some processing of migrants to another site on the other side of the bridge, using a military-style tent near an existing processing facility operated by Customs and Border Protection. A smaller number of migrants could be seen at that site late Sunday afternoon.

Separately, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection said on Sunday that the agency was “in the process of transferring all of the illegal aliens being held temporarily” at the original enclosure under the bridge to a processing station in northeast El Paso. The spokesman said that the decision was made “to relocate to a location with more space and more shelter capability.”

The border agency contended last week that it had no choice but to hold the migrants in the outdoor location, surrounded by fencing and razor wire, because of overcrowding at processing facilities in El Paso brought on by a surge in Central American migrants applying for asylum.

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