Border Crisis Photo Journal: Del Rio Bridge 2.0 Hits El Paso

Julio Rosas | December 14, 2022 8:00 AM

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — If there's any sign of what is to come when Title 42 is lifted next week, the scene by the Rio Grande in El Paso shows U.S. immigration authorities are in for a tidal wave.

What started on Sunday has not slowed down as thousands of people continue to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border to turn themselves in to Border Patrol. Because they are so overwhelmed, however, the illegal immigrants have to wait for hours, sometimes days, in the cold to be processed. The result is a long line that features people wrapped in blankets and fires in an attempt to stay warm.

The queue is easiest to be seen from Ciudad Juarez, El Paso's border town. Mexican police were vastly outnumbered Tuesday evening, regulated to simply watch as people waded back and forth in the freezing Rio Grande.

Border Patrol was allowing a few dozen people at a time to enter the U.S. through a chain-link fence gate. Tensions rose at times as the illegal immigrants wanted to get past the gate because they were sick of being tired and cold.

The long lines by an international bridge is similar imagery to when tens of thousands of Haitians illegally crossed into Del Rio, Texas, in the fall of 2021. Thousands of people suddenly showing up in one spot resulted in long wait times to be processed out in the elements under the bridge because there was nowhere else to put them. The main differences in El Paso's case are the demographics and the weather.