U.S. immigration officials face surge of asylum seekers near El Paso

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• JUDY WOODRUFF:

  An extraordinary number of migrants crossed the U.S. Mexico border into El Paso, Texas, over the weekend, this as government and non government agencies prepare for the end of Title 42, the pandemic-related order that the government has used to turn away more than one million migrants.

  Amna Nawaz has more.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Judy, nearly 1,000 people, many from Nicaragua, crossed the Rio Grande from Juarez, Mexico, into El Paso on Sunday night alone, stretching an already tax border system to new limits.

  Along the entire Southern border, federal agents have reported a record number of encounters, nearly 2.4 million in a year-long period.

  For more on the impact of these arrivals and what can be done from Washington, I'm joined by Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a Democrat representing Texas' 16th Congressional District, which includes El Paso, and where she joins us from now

  Congresswoman, welcome back.

  As you well know, the last few days have seen some of the largest mass crossings in decades. You have said your community has seen an unprecedented strain.

  You're there right now, so describe for us the impact on El Paso. How bad is it?

• Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX):

  Well, first, I want to say, Amna, I'm really proud of the community.

  We continue to respond to an enormous challenge, while retaining our values and not surrendering to politics and making sure that we are coming forward with solutions. So, I want to applaud everyone here at the local level.

  I also want to thank the Biden administration. It is the first administration ever that has sought to fully reimburse expenses that are related to supporting migrants in the federal government. But it is — this is a very deeply — this is a profound challenge. I don't want to not emphasize that enough.

  Our resources have been stretched as far as they can. Our local governments have been asked to perform functions that are not within their jurisdiction necessarily. Our homeless shelters are beyond capacity. And our Border Patrol agents and OFO officers are working overtime, are — they are stressed. Their families are stressed.

  I have been warning for some time, really going back years, that if Congress failed to act on legislating around this issue, and if Congress continued to treat immigration as a border-only issue, things would only get worse. They have. And if Congress doesn't act, they will continue to get worse.

• Amna Nawaz:

  What about in the immediate future, in terms of the numbers you're seeing right now?

  We saw the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, who was there in El Paso today. What do you need right now from the federal government? And are you going to get it?

• Rep. Veronica Escobar:

  I feel good about FEMA reimbursements. FEMA has prioritized our community and other border communities, making sure that they are as efficiently as possible either reimbursing local governments or providing up-front funding in order to address this from the local level.

  Where we need a lot more help is really in a number of other ways. And I had a great conversation late last night with the Appropriations chairwoman, Rosa DeLauro. We need a broader whole-of-government approach. And so we are going to need to make sure that the federal government in this omnibus — and we need this omnibus to be passed before Christmas Eve.

  This omnibus must contain robust FEMA funding for humanitarian support and relief going forward. The other thing I'm requesting in that omnibus is federally run emergency short-term shelter. We cannot continue to see migrant sleeping on the streets.

  We — the faith-based community is stepping up, and they are going to try to help provide shelter. And the county of El Paso is helping collaborate with them, support them, and make sure that they're able to stand those up and have the resources for that.

  But we also need a federally run shelter. So, this is the short term, right, immediate, how to deal with this in the immediate.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Yes.

• Rep. Veronica Escobar:

  But, in the long term — yes.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, let me ask you about that short term, because there's another real challenge ahead, which is that, next week, Title 42 is slated to end, on December 21. That is the pandemic era policy allowing border officials to quickly expel anyone arriving at the Southern border.

  Everyone agrees numbers will go up when that happens. Is getting rid of Title 42 right now a mistake?

• Rep. Veronica Escobar:

  Title 42 is not a solution.

  And, for too long, people have looked to it as a solution. I mean, you have been here in our community. You know that we are getting people who are arriving at our nation's front door from a number of different countries. And, really, there are a lot of those countries where Title 42 cannot be used.

  And so for Title 42 to be seen as a solution — and Democrats and Republicans alike have been touting it as a solution — it's not — it's not the solution. What we're seeing happening really is 80 percent of migrants who are being expelled, but probably about 20 percent of them because Title 42 is not applicable, cannot be and are paroled into the country.

  But my hope is, is that the administration understands and comes to understand that deterrence has not solved this. I think they know that. Congress needs to understand that as well. Title 42 is — in some ways makes things far worse. It helps provide more victims to human traffickers, because people make multiple attempts to get in.

  I think it further strains Border Patrol. But we have got to get real solutions, tangible solutions, and only Congress can do that.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Well, on that front, you are about to have a divided Congress in the new year. Republicans will hold the House majority.

  Where is there any hope of bipartisan immigration reform in the form of legislation? What Republicans do you know who will work with you on that?

• Rep. Veronica Escobar:

  Well, here's — here's the big challenge.

  The — I don't know if Kevin McCarthy will be the next speaker of the House. I don't know if he has the votes to get to 218. But he has announced that, if he is speaker of the House, there will be no immigration-related legislation that gets to the House floor.

  And so even if we can cobble together some solutions with moderate Republicans — and there still are some moderate Republicans who I believe want to solve this.

  Unfortunately, Kevin McCarthy is getting into the more extreme voices in his party and his conference. We would have to figure out a way to work around that or for his moderate members to allow some of that legislation to come to the floor.

  If we don't get that, we will have two years, not just of the same, but really a situation that will get significantly worse over time.

• Amna Nawaz:

  That is Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, a Democrat from Texas, joining us from El Paso tonight.

  Thank you for your time.

• Rep. Veronica Escobar:

  Thank you.