Currents News Staff
Troops stand guard as a massive migrant caravan arrives at the U.S. / Mexico border.
“We’ve come in search of something better for our family,” said Elmer Orlando Zamora from El Salvador.
Nearly 2,000 people want to seek asylum and enter the United States through Eagle Pass, Texas, but U.S. Customs and Border Patrol says it can only process 16 to 20 people per day.
“At this point, the system is at a total capacity,” said Paul Del Rincon, the Eagle Pass Port Director.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent about 500 state troopers to the border and the Pentagon moved about 250 military members to the Eagle Pass area.
Border security is a sticking point for Congress and the President. A funding deal needs to be reached by next Friday, before part of the government shuts down again.
“We need border security. We have to have it. It’s not an option. Let’s see what happens,” said President Trump.
Lawmakers are also looking into the Trump administration’s zero tolerance illegal immigration policy, which forced thousands of migrant children from their families at the border.
“I do not believe that separation of children from their parents is in the best interest of the child,” said Commander Jonathan White of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Last year, the government said more than 2,700 children were taken from their parents at the border but this year, a Health and Human Services Inspector General report found that number was wrong, and thousands more families were actually separated.
“To be clear, what happened to these children should never happen in this country,” said Rep. Dianna DeGette from Colorado.