BROWNSVILLE, Texas — As soon as I entered Iglesia Bautista West Brownsville, Rev. Carlos Navarro, the head pastor, was in a hurry, rushing to get ready for the last drop-off of immigrants recently released by Border Patrol at the bus station. What made this group different from the ones the church had been used to was that the group consisted of all adult men, not family units.
"We used to get 1,000 people per week, now we get 900 people a day," Navarro told me as they gathered the men from Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela for a group photo. While Title 42, the CDC order that has allowed Border Patrol to quickly expel illegal immigrants during the COVID-19 pandemic, is officially going away on May 23, for charities and non-governmental organizations operating in the Rio Grande Valley, Title 42 is already gone.
Highlighting how busy he had been after dropping the last set of migrants at the bus station, Navarro told me he did not have the chance to eat breakfast or lunch that day. In the main hall of the church, tables were set out with clothing items and food for the migrants, who are no longer considered illegal immigrants by Border Patrol as they are being released on parole while they continue their claims for asylum.
"This is a lot more. This is way out of proportion," Navarro said about the number of people they have been taking care of since the border crisis began in 2021. When asked how he felt about Title 42 going away, Navarro predicts the crisis will be the worst it's ever been.
"I think it is going to double or triple the number of migrants coming," he said. "Our passion is to serve the migrants, and we'll be happy to have them over. The only thing is it's exhausting, tiring. This is a 365-day ministry. It's going to be so much volume and people coming over."
Navarro, whose church does not get federal funding for its work, relies on donations of supplies and money coming from the Salvation Army and a few other organizations. Every other month, he puts together a list of what they need, and typically, they have been given most, if not all, of what has been on their wishlist. But the renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed that.
"They tell me, 'Out of the 17 [items], we only got nine because it's already been sent to Ukraine or Romania and Poland,'" Navarro explained.
Navarro admits once Title 42 is no longer enforced, the church might very well reach the point of being unable to take people in and provide supplies. The only reason why his church has been able to keep up with the extra number of people on a daily basis is that they have a surplus of supplies from the year prior, but there is no way they will be able to maintain the high rate of care if more than 1,000 people are released to them every day starting next month.
Navarro said in his conversations with the other two NGOs in town, Teams Brownsville and Good Neighbor, they have expressed grave concern about hundreds of people who are released from Border Patrol custody and have nowhere to go because the charities will be at capacity.
"It's going to be impossible for me, even for Team Brownsville or anybody. We know we might get 1,000 [per day], but we can only feed 500 or 600," he added. "We serve with the things that we have. If we don't have [anything], what else can we do? With the few things we do have, we'll do our best."
Navarro said the situation at the border is a crisis and that officials from the Biden administration have to visit the area to see the problem firsthand.