AUSTIN, Texas — The small town of Eagle Pass has been inundated by more than 17,000 immigrants who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border and were apprehended by law enforcement in the last 10 days, the Washington Examiner has learned.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas shared the latest arrest figures with the Washington Examiner hours after he went on Facebook to lament being ignored and “abandoned” by the Biden administration as the equivalent of more than half of the 28,000-person town’s population has flooded over the border in a matter of days.
SUPREME COURT DENIES REQUEST BY ALABAMA TO USE NEW CONGRESSIONAL MAPS
“We’re not a city that has the resources of New York, Chicago, cities like that. You already see big cities already complaining that they’re getting large amounts of undocumented immigrants. I mean, we’re Eagle Pass. We only have limited resources, so this is not sustainable,” Salinas said in a Facebook livestream at the scene of the crossings downtown shortly after 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday.
“As a mayor, what’s disappointing is that we haven’t heard from the president of the United States or the vice president of the United States,” Salinas said. “To this day, I haven’t heard of a concrete plan of action to stop this from continuing to happen. Sometimes, we feel kind of abandoned here at the at the border here in Eagle Pass.”
Salinas, who first spoke with the Washington Examiner in 2021 about the rise in illegal immigration through the south-central Texas town, said he extended an invitation to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to visit and offer solutions to the town’s immigration problem.
The town has one nonprofit group that helps immigrants and no airport, leaving just several bus companies responsible for transporting out of town the thousands of people released on the street, often penniless and confused.
Salinas walked around beneath the bridges that connect Eagle Pass to Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. Lines of mostly immigrant men wrapped around the concrete legs of one bridge as state military, as well as federal and local police, organized people into lines to be transported to processing facilities later. Eagle Pass police officers on the scene have helped keep the peace, he said.
“Right now, the operation is to process people, but processing people is not a deterrence. The only deterrence is to have a serious consequence if people come in here illegally,” said Salinas, who added that the police, fire department, and Border Patrol were “doing the best that they can, but they’re out here hustling to process these people.”
Salinas lamented that Biden was willing to stand alongside United Auto Workers recently but has left people in Eagle Pass on their own.
“Let us know what the plan of action is. … What the United States is planning to do to help border cities like Eagle Pass, Texas,” Salinas said.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Bridge One between Eagle Pass and Piedras Negras remains closed, costing the city “thousands and thousands” of dollars in lost taxes on incoming pedestrians and vehicles at the port of entry.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment.
