BREAKING:
#ElPaso
Mayor Oscar Leeser declares a state of emergency just days before
#Title42
expires. Migrants have been sleeping on the street in freezing temps. “I really believe that, today, our asylum seekers are not safe,” he said.
#immigration
#Texas
@elpasotimes
If the current network of tools and policies we have, which ended catch and release, are stopped - we won’t just have another illegal immigration crisis - we’ll have an invasion.
Some personal news:
After four years at the El Paso Times, I’m thrilled to be joining
@USATODAY
as a national reporter covering
#immigration
& national news. Pls send story ideas, good vibes & strong coffee 😊
More testimonies from inside
#ICEDetention
from
@elpasotimes
&
@USATODAY
:
Irrael Arzuaga Milanes came to the US border with uncle Maxiel. “By keeping us here for 7 or 8 months, they are making money on us because we are a business for them,” he told
@elpasotimes
.
What happened in El Paso a year ago today is unspeakable and heartbreaking – we will never forget the 23 Texans who lost their lives that day and the dozens of others wounded.
He waited 4 months in Mexico & went to court like he was supposed to. But with no work & his family in the US, he became desperate & crossed illegally.
Now he is detained by ICE at Otero. Because he is seeking asylum, he hasn’t been deported but doesn’t have a court date either.
A 7-year-old Guatemalan girl died in
#BorderPatrol
custody after crossing with her father & 161 other migrants in the
#NewMexico
Bootheel.
@DHSgov
officials just tried to explain to reporters how remote & dangerous the region is, but it's hard to convey if you haven't seen it.
148 dead.
Migration has never been so deadly in El Paso as it was this year. The toll was more than double last year, and a record for West Texas & New Mexico.
#immigration
@elpasotimes
👇
Testimonies from inside
#ICEDetention
from
@elpasotimes
&
@USATODAY
:
Maxiel Milanes Sanchez, 46, fled Cuba after being detained & beaten by the “political police” on 15-20 occasions, according to a transcript of his credible fear interview.
“Inhumane things are happening here,” Rolando told
@elpasotimes
. A judge is supposed to make a final decision in his case but he doesn’t know when. “That is my anguish,” he said.
BREAKING in El Paso: CBP says it is temporarily suspending processing of cargo at the Bridge of the Americas to process
#migrants
arriving between ports of entry.
Demonstrators supporting and opposing the Christmas drag show at the Aztec Theater in San Antonio have begun arriving.
Both sides are armed.
The far right group claims the show is grooming children. Counter protesters are here supporting LGBTQ rights and anti-fascism.
@TPRNews
Authorities sent Rodormiro to Juarez under the Remain In Mexico program & released his wife & kids to family in Virginia.
Photo by
@LambieMark
@ the Tornillo holding center east of El Paso.
Rolando Matamoros Garcia says he faced persecution & arbitrary detention in Cuba. The 32-year-old has now been in ICE custody for 13 months, pursuing an asylum claim with no end in sight.
A migrant woman rests at El Paso’s Annunciation House shelter after being entangled in razor wire at the
#Texas
border.
“Do we look at that & then say, ‘Thank you Jesus for helping protect us?’” asked Ruben Garcia of
@AHouseElPaso
. AH volunteer photo shared w/ permission.
Because
#coronavirus
sucks, I'm rebooting my story about Camila the border-crossing wiener dog. I like to think she is still trotting across, laughing at human attempts to close the
#border
.
Also, she also just won me 1st place in
@APME
awards :).
And still more testimonies from
#ICEDetention
from
@elpasotimes
&
@USATODAY
:
Cuban dancer Alberto Fernandez saw his parole denied despite being found to have a credible fear of returning to Cuba, where he was persecuted for opposing the regime.
I am writing about frontline health workers in
#ElPaso
for
@elpasotimes
. The story has taken 6 days. Every day I update the death toll in the 5th paragraph.
I started at 657. Today it's 725.
68 people have died in the time it took to write this story.
#COVID19
#WearAMask
“You go see a judge,” Irrael said. “You can take with you whatever evidence you have, & they will tell you to your face, ‘It’s a lie.’ They send you to appeal your case. The appeals process lasts 6 months & then, everything is still denied.”
Ariel Guzman Acosta, a Cuban asylum seeker, was detained at Otero months without seeing a judge. “We don’t understand why they have detained me and the other asylum seekers without parole,” he told
@elpasotimes
. “They have in many cases given incoherent explanations.”
Of 40 men killed in the fire at a
#Juarez
migrant jail, 5 were from the same Mayan community in
#Guatemala
, an unimaginable loss.
Our 2nd in the
@elpasotimes
series on the deadliest year for migrants in the El Paso
#migration
corridor w/
@fotornelas
👇
BREAKING: US federal court preliminarily prevents
#Texas
from enforcing
#SB4
, the law that would make it a state crime to cross the Texas-Mexico border unlawfully.
#Texas
I hope they don't correct this.
#josebiden
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro congratulated U.S. President-elect Jose Biden, becoming the last major Latin American leaders to do so.
What does the power to “close the border” mean? Friendly reminder that border communities are sewn together & 100s of 1000s of American families (& the economy) depend on open ports.
Remembering the last time “the border closed”—
Emma Gandara, 85, came to
@Walmart
on the day of its reopening to honor a friend she lost & reconnect w/ employees who know her by name.
#ElPasoStrong
@elpasotimes
Trigger warning. This may be the hardest of all our stories on
#migrant
deaths. But medical investigator Laura Mae Williams is a
#NewMexico
treasure. She treats the deceased w/ care & dignity, no matter where they came from.
#immigration
w/ 📸
@fotornelas
In November, Honduran asylum seeker Elvis Guillen Zelaya said he had been detained 5 months by ICE without seeing a judge. “They are deporting people who have strong cases to present,” he told
@elpasotimes
. “It doesn’t matter to them.”
#ElPaso
Mayor on emergency declaration: “We have hundreds & hundreds (of migrants) on the streets and that’s not the way we want to treat people.”
#Title42
#immigration
#JournalismTwitter
: Are you fascinated by the U.S.-Mexico border? Love to hear/speak 2 languages on the daily? Dig the Rio Grande & the mountains?
The El Paso Times is looking for an editor! Our small newsroom does big things! Come work w/ us! 👇
Behind the numbers: In the time it took
#BorderPatrol
to get yesterday's press release approved reporting 134 deaths, two more bodies had been found in the desert, which is why we reported 136.
DEVELOPING:
#UTEP
has named as a research fellow a former
#BorderPatrol
agent who resigned from a leadership position after facing multiple allegations that he victimized women, first reported by
@MSNBC
. More to come in
@elpasotimes
>>
“The deportation officer is doing whatever she wants,” Yoenny told
@elpasotimes
. “The documents say I’m not a flight risk, but the deportation officer says something else verbally.”
UPDATE 2 p.m.:
23,282 El Pasoans have cast ballots on
#ElectionDay2020
, according to the county Elections Department.
That’s in addition to 222,149 ballots cast during early voting.
HALF of
#ElPaso
registered voters have now voted.
Cuban asylum seeker Yoenny Reyes Ponce has been in ICE custody at Otero for 4 months & says he was promised parole by one agent only to see it taken away by another.
Another 291 migrants showed up last night in the
#Bootheel
, in freezing temperatures. They continue to arrive, seeking asylum, with stunning regularity, often on Tuesdays & Thursdays. 1/3
Thought I’d share this video. During challenging times migrants sleeping on El Paso streets turn to music as refuge, and to express the tough journey that brought them here.
BREAKING: A franchisee of disaster clean-up company
@SERVPRO
took over youth care at
#FortBliss
"emergency intake" site for migrant children w/o corporate parent knowing. Sources say turmoil has contributed to allegedly "traumatizing" conditions.
Each day, in an abandoned building in
#Juarez
that they’ve made their home,
#migrants
wake early to try get an appointment to seek
#asylum
in the US.
📸
@fotornelas
captures the waiting >>
Cuban asylum seeker Yasiel Lara Palma says he was assaulted & robbed in Juarez while waiting his turn to make an asylum claim at a port of entry. He crossed illegally & had been in ICE custody 7 months when
@elpasotimes
spoke with him
Hopes are wearing thin among
#asylum
seekers waiting in
#Ju
árez: Not a single applicant under
#MPP
has been granted asylum in the El Paso court this year. “I don’t want to keep waiting only for them to deport me,” a Honduran said. w/
@LambieMark
Sister Socorro Arenas, 48, originally from Puebla, Mexico, has lived in
#Texas
20 years. “I have been thinking about what is best for El Paso & the United States,” she said. “I voted for
#Biden
.”
Yasiel has seen an immigration judge but new court dates keep getting postponed. “Every time I get a notification it gets pushed back,” he said. “I am really afraid because the judges here don’t approve many asylum cases.”
I’ve just arrived in Mexico City for my first foreign trip as
@DHSGov
Secretary. I’m looking forward to a productive visit that will further strengthen the close partnership between our two nations.
#ElPaso
is often called the 'Ellis Island of the Southwest.' Turns out, the city's Segundo Barrio is the ORIGINAL Ellis Island, a landing place for
#immigrants
before the iconic port in New York's harbor. ✏️from
@MOrtizUribe
#ElPaso
mayor foresees 4K-6K asylum seekers could be arriving at the city’s border per day after
#Title42
ends on Tuesday night, up from about 2,500 people per day now. Emergency declaration will allow the city to open more shelter space quickly, he said.
Please keep in mind that as you crisscross the border, our Mexican colleagues who aren’t US citizens cannot cross, thanks to the ongoing border closure.
You can go into
#Mexico
but they can’t come into the
#US
. We have immense privilege right now./2
If you come to
#CdJuarez
, please know that this city is a vibrant, culturally rich, industrial border city w/ thriving populations of working & middle class people. It can be “dusty” & “dangerous” — but that isn’t all it is./3
Anxiety, helplessness, rage.
Ansiedad, impotencia, coraje.
That’s how
#border
residents describe their feelings about the restrictions at the US-Mexico border, now six months on.
#ElPaso
,
#Juarez
via
@elpasotimes
I've been covering the
#Bootheel
for years. Central American
#migrants
have been arriving for years, but not in the numbers seen in the past three months. When the latest group arrived, 4 agents were there to meet them. FOUR. The group included 50 unaccompanied minors.
Can you believe it? These NY state farm workers were harvesting cabbages last week for 8 hours on a day that temps ranged between 28°-40°. They earn $10 a one ton bin. They say the rate hasn't gone up for more than 5 years.
#WeFeedYou
Our work to secure the border under Gov.
@GregAbbott_TX
's
#OperationLoneStar
often takes us to remote areas, where our people work to track//interdict criminal activity. Our goal is simple: DPS will continue to utilize all assets to combat the smuggling of people & drugs into TX.
On
#IndigenousPeoplesDay
, watch
#Guatemala
, where indigenous communities are leading massive protests against government attempts to interfere in the democratic election of President-elect
@BArevalodeLeon
🧵
When you are waiting in lines at ports of entry, please think of us who are at the mercy of border policies & practices every day. (Hi, I am 45 minutes into a bridge line right now! 🙏🏽)/5
The mayor of
#ElPaso
#Texas
said he held off declaring a state of emergency until it became “a real emergency.” Said
@GovAbbott
’s office has promised not to take action w/o consulting mayor first.
#Title42
I field my share of threats & insults as most
#journalists
do, but rarely have I ever been compared to a Nazi propagandist and then invited to lunch.
#JournalismTwitter
@DHSgov
explained what happened from the time the girl & her father crossed & her death in El Paso. The story adds up if you know the terrain; but details remain fuzzy w/o hearing the father's perspective.
Things aren't always what they seem out there:
The
#border
reopened overnight to Mexican tourists. Alicia Tagle & husband were among the first in line. They huggged & held their visas for the cameras. Follow
@fotornelas
@brie_san11
@elpasotimes
for updates this morning!
Covering a
#massshooting
took an incredible amount of focus, time & strength for
#journalists
@elpasotimes
. THANK YOU to the
#newsrooms
& folks nationwide that took care of us with breakfast, lunch, dinner & these amazing cookies>>
So, for those who don't know the
#Bootheel
, its three north-south mountain chains or its two north-south roads, the tiny
#AntelopeWells
port of entry or the
#BorderPatrol
forward operating base that is barely staffed, here are some stories by me &
@rosalesquique
BREAKING: Mexican officials say they are investigating who gave a possible "order" to keep
#migrants
detained behind bars even as a fire grew at a
#Juarez
migrant processing center.