EAGLE PASS, Texas — A local non-government church-run shelter forced migrants without sufficient funds to cover their transportation costs out onto the streets of Eagle Pass, Texas. Breitbart Texas spoke to multiple groups of mostly Venezuelan migrants who left the border city on foot, hoping to reach San Antonio — a march of more than 150 miles.
As temperatures neared 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday, the migrants began their journey, most of them without sufficient supplies of water needed to make the trek. The video shows six frustrated migrants who spoke to Breitbart Texas more than ten miles outside the city.
Mission Border Hope Shelter in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas)
Two of the six migrants told Breitbart Texas they were headed to New York City, and the remaining four said they were headed to Houston. All of the migrants indicated their primary reason for coming to the United States was due to the economic situation in Venezuela, an immediate disqualification for asylum. Despite this, the migrants were still granted release to pursue unfounded claims of asylum.
A migrant making the trek from Eagle Pass to San Antonio shows his Border Patrol release paperwork. (Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas)
The migrants say they were forced to leave the Mission Border Hope shelter, run by the United Methodist Church when they could not afford to pay $50.00 for a bus ticket to San Antonio.
The shelter’s website lists the following as a mission statement:
Border Hope is a non-profit organization rooted in the United Methodist Church. We work to honor God through serving people in need regardless of faith, gender, sex, age, background, or nationality. We believe that all people are worthy of an abundant life, and we are willing to invest our presence, compassion, prayers, and gifts to support those seeking opportunity.
The shelter receives the migrants directly from the United States Border Patrol daily. According to a source within CBP, the Border Patrol releases migrants to the shelter instead of releasing them straight onto the city streets. The source says the agency hopes to avoid adding to the homeless population and expects the shelter to accommodate the migrants’ travel to the interior of the United States.
“We had no knowledge that the poorest of migrants would be thrown out on the streets and expected to walk more than 150 miles to the next largest city, but that is where we are,” the source emphasized.
Migrants leaving Eagle Pass afoot to San Antonio, Texas. (Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas)
The source says the system has reached a breaking point. “We have no other option but complete surrender at this point,” the source lamented. “Our facilities are full, the NGO shelters have exceeded their capacity as well, and we are releasing every migrant we can just to stay afloat.”
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Although the shelter receives reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Methodist Church-run non-profit must provide the services first. The move to eject the migrants from the shelter may be a sign the cost of accommodating the surge of migrants has reached a tipping point. Calls by Breitbart Texas to the shelter for comment went unanswered.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, on Friday, more than 1,300 migrants were apprehended by the Border Patrol in Eagle Pass. The city has seen migrant crossings rise rapidly in recent days. In the first six hours of Monday morning, more than 1,500 migrants streamed into the city. The increase is taxing the ability of the Border Patrol to transport and process the migrants, resulting in severe overcrowding at a local processing facility, according to the CBP source.
Migrant surge in Eagle Pass, Texas. (Randy Clark/Breitbart Texas)
The subsequent migrant releases by the Border Patrol to the Mission Border Hope shelter continued Monday in a revolving-door fashion. More migrants appeared on city streets, searching for a way to depart the border city.
Randy Clark is a 32-year veteran of the United States Border Patrol. Prior to his retirement, he served as the Division Chief for Law Enforcement Operations, directing operations for nine Border Patrol Stations within the Del Rio, Texas, Sector. Follow him on Twitter @RandyClarkBBTX.