Asylum-seeking migrants were photographed by The Post Monday crossing the Rio Grande between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas.
The refugees — who were mostly escaping Venezuela amid deteriorating economic conditions and food shortages in the South American country — lined up inside El Paso’s Migrant Welcome Center before boarding busses heading to cities across the country.
Migrants have been bussed in record numbers to sanctuary cities like New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC, by the Republican governors of Texas and Arizona while they pursue their immigration cases.
Nearly 800 migrants have died trying to cross the border so far this year, Customs and Border Protection said last month. Hundreds had drowned in the Rio Grande while many others succumbed to heat exhaustion.
Asylum-seeking migrants were photographed Monday crossing the Rio Grande between Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and El Paso, Texas. Go Nakamura for NY PostMore than 20,000 more migrants had been rescued by CBP officers in the fiscal year 2022, which ended last week, statistics show.
The treacherous waterway that divides the two nations is known in Mexico as El Río Bravo, “the angry river” or “the fierce river.”
US authorities have stopped about 2 million migrants from crossing into the country since last fall — setting a new record, according to Customs and Border Protection data.
The refugees — who were mostly escaping Venezuela amid deteriorating economic conditions and foot shortages — lined up inside the Migrant Welcome Center before boarding busses heading to cities across the country. Go Nakamura for NY Post
The large jump in migrant crossings began a year earlier after the COVID-19 pandemic slowed border traffic and people attempted multiple crossings after being sent back across the frontier under a new policy.
The perception of less restrictive border protocols under the Biden administration and growing unrest in Venezuela, as well as Nicaragua and Cuba, have also contributed to the border surge.
The busing policy has been fraught with political strife between Democrat mayors and Republican governors. Go Nakamura for NY Post
Migrants lined up for transportation and humanitarian services in El Paso. Go Nakamura for NY PostThe US had allowed 25,000 migrants into the US out of 125,000 possible refugee slots that were allotted by the White House this year, CBS reported Monday. The low admission rate was blamed on a gutting of the resettlement program by the Trump administration.
A total of 150,000 evacuees from Ukraine and Afghanistan were admitted to the US under humanitarian parole — which does not include a path to American citizenship, according to the network.
With Post wires
