Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales (TX) said in an interview this week that the Guatemalan president warned him that tens of thousands of illegal immigrants are headed to the U.S.-Mexico border with Title 42 set to expire.
According to Fox News, President Alejandro Giammattei tried to phone the White House to warn that 80,000 immigrants were making their way to the United States, but no one took his calls.
NEW: Texas Congressman @RepTonyGonzales says the President of Guatemala told him he knows of at least 80,000 predominantly Venezuelan nationals who are making their way to the U.S. border ahead of the drop of Title 42, and that nobody at the White House would take his calls.
— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) May 9, 2023
Title 42, which has been in place since 2020, allows Border Patrol to turn away illegal immigrants quickly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the order expiring on May 11, it is expected for a surge of migrants to arrive at the southern border to try to come to the U.S.
This week, Julio reported from El Paso that the downtown streets have become a “refugee camp” for processed and released migrants, mostly Venezuelans. Julio noted that he heard “a lot of coughing and sneezing.”
In an interview with Townhall, Gonzales said: "If someone does not qualify for asylum, which is 9 out of 10 people, DHS should fly them back to their country of origin not bus them all over the country," Gonzales’ congressional district covers over 400 miles of the international border.
On the ground in El Paso for @townhallcom and this is a small sample of the giant migrant camp in the downtown area. The size and conditions are much worse than when I was here covering the surge/camp in December. pic.twitter.com/OEbZM2Ex1w
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) May 5, 2023
This week, Julio also reported how the city’s migrant shelters are preparing for the worst once Title 42 expires.
"For us, it's just been, where are we going to put these people? For us, we have the capacity of about 225. We haven't reached that capacity just yet but I'm sure by the end of the week we'll be there. But that's 225 when thousands are released a day, so it's just a drop in the bucket," Nicole Reulet, Rescue Mission of El Paso's (RMEP) marketing director, explained. "So our biggest concern is just making that sure there's no kids on the street."