On Wednesday, the U.S. Border Patrol announced that it had erected a gargantuan tent in El Paso, Texas that can fit up to 1,000 people, in an effort to somewhat control the surge of illegal aliens coming across the border.
As reported by the New York Post, the tent is the equivalent size of 23 football fields. The temporary shelter was built on the outskirts of El Paso, in the hopes that it would bring some of the surging population of illegals away from the community, where they have been directly responsible for a rise in crime and homelessness.
The 1,040-person tent is located near one of the Border Patrol’s permanent processing centers, which the Border Patrol hopes will enable them to process the illegals and keep them moving so the tent doesn’t overflow. Previously, many such illegals would be tightly forced into the El Paso Processing Center or transported to other processing centers nearby, so the authorities could run their biometrics and check their criminal records.
Construction first began on the tent back in December, in anticipation of the end of Title 42; city officials expected that as many as 5,000 illegals would pass through El Paso every day if the Trump-era public health policy was revoked. However, the Supreme Court has ordered a halt on the Biden Administration’s plans to repeal the policy, as a coalition of 19 Republican-led states prepares to make the case for the policy being kept in place.
The city of El Paso declared a state of emergency back in December over the border crisis, which led to the state government sending reinforcements to aid the city, including 400 members of the Texas National Guard. These measures have led to a gradual reduction in the number of illegals overwhelming the city.
As Title 42 awaits the Supreme Court’s eventual decision, Biden has announced several additional immigration measures that are ostensibly meant to reduce the flow of illegal aliens. Biden said that any illegals from Cuba, Haiti, or Nicaragua who do not go through a proper port of entry to seek asylum will be immediately deported. In exchange, the administration will allow entry for up to 30,000 illegals per month if they are from these three countries and Venezuela, provided they properly apply for asylum.
Since rising to power, Biden has been universally criticized for his poor handling of the border crisis, as his numerous open-borders promises on the campaign trail have encouraged more illegals to try to enter the U.S. than ever before. After refusing to finally visit the border for many years, Biden paid a visit on Sunday to areas that were not heavily affected by the immigration crisis, and spent just three hours in total at the border.