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Oct. 25, 2018
Federal officials release more migrant families at the border, citing an uptick
Lomi Kriel Oct. 25, 2018
President Donald Trump’s administration is releasing thousands of Central American families after briefly detaining them at the border, overwhelming nonprofits from El Paso to San Diego who are suddenly scrambling to find them temporary housing and transportation to their final destination.
The “coordinated release” began earlier this month in Arizona, where nonprofits had to rent motel rooms to handle the influx. This week, federal officials asked Annunciation House, an El Paso shelter, to take in 1,300 adults and children with even more expected next week. In San Diego, Pastor Bill Jenkins said his church was told to anticipate as many as 150 migrants a day, double its usual intake.
“We are going to be slammed,” he said. “If they have to sleep on the pews, they’ll sleep on the pews.”
The number of families coming here has steadily increased for months since the administration ended its controversial practice of family separation in June with a near-record 16,658 arriving in September, a 30 percent jump from August.