Migrant families are being held in a parking lot

Hundreds of migrant families are being held in a parking lot under a bridge in El Paso, Texas — and immigration advocates are outraged.

Transcript

00:00They are using refugees, children, mothers, and fathers to advance a political agenda.

00:14They are not the conditions for a family, for children to be there, for mothers to be

00:18there.

00:19I mean, they might have some portable restrooms, we're not sure.

00:24By no means, that is the conditions where refugees and asylum seekers should be placed.

00:30I mean, that is quite irresponsible.

00:50And they are trying to come legally into the United States by the ports of entry, and they

00:57are being rejected at ports of entry.

01:01This administration is turning refugees back to Mexico massively when they are trying to

01:07come legally.

01:09So what that is creating is a condition where people that is being returned to Mexico, now

01:14they are forced to come between ports of entry by the river.

01:19And the administration now is taking that picture and saying, you see, we have an influx,

01:24a massive influx of refugees.

01:34We have more of them coming because the situations in Central America, probably they are getting

01:39worse.

01:40But by no means, we have the numbers that we have in the year of 2000.

01:45In the year of 2000, we have close to 1.6 million people crossing the border.

01:49And even today, with this increase, we're not going to get to that number by any means.

02:05Instead of putting more resources at ports of entry, having more officers, asylum officers,

02:12having welcoming centers in the U.S. side, what they are doing is exactly the opposite.

02:17We have families coming, fleeing specific circumstances that America should be able

02:23to grant them legal due process and accept their petitions as asylum seekers.

02:30At the end, if they are not eligible, they might not be, but at least we need to guarantee

02:35due process when they petition for asylum or refugee status.

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