Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) said on Sunday that a “hurricane of migrants” is hitting the city of El Paso, Texas, as migrants surge to the U.S.-Mexico border.
“It is a dire situation in El Paso. As you know, the city declared a state of emergency. This is something you do when there’s a hurricane, a fire, an earthquake. What is happening is it’s a hurricane of migrants,” Gonzales said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with host Margaret Brennan.
The latest influx of migrants comes just ahead of the Wednesday expiration date of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that restricted asylum-seekers.
The rollback of the policy is expected to lead to an uptick in migrants attempting to enter the U.S. The mayor of El Paso on Saturday declared a state of emergency as shelters in the city were overwhelmed over the weekend.
“What I saw were hundreds — over 500 migrants in a pod. They call them pods, essentially a large cell that holds about 100 people. There’s one bathroom. The odor is terrible. There’s eight pods in there. So those are the good conditions,” Gonzales said of the processing center in El Paso.
“Outside, just above the hill, there’s … a little over 1,000 migrants waiting in outdoor conditions, not to mention the people that are waiting by the bridge and elsewhere. It’s a very dire situation in El Paso,” he added.
Gonzales underscored that the situation is expected to worsen as more migrants approach the border and as winter weather intensifies — and called for more immediate action on border security.
“Throwing money at a problem does not solve a problem. … The problem is enforcing the laws already on the books. I’d also argue the bulk of people that are coming over are just trying to live a better life. I get that. They’re coming here for economic opportunities. But that doesn’t qualify for asylum,” Gonzales said.