The representative of the 23rd District of Texas, Tony Gonzales, showed his rejection of the claim of President Joe Biden, who announced the sending of 1,500 soldiers to the border on the eve of the completion of Title 42 and ruled that instead of military Immigration judges are sent to process the thousands of foreigners who are expected to cross the dividing line before and after May 11, the date on which the sanitary measure expires.
The soldiers will be based in El Paso, as it is the epicenter of the migrant crossing, the Border Patrol announced Friday. From this city they will be transferred to where they are required.
In his projection and in a tone of concern, he stressed that he indicated that the situation will worsen once Title 42 ends, for which he urged effective measures to be taken to face the avalanche of migrants to the border region.
“Throwing last-minute resources will not solve the crisis and will only increase the number of people entering the country whose immigration status is in limbo due to delays in the courts,” he said after pointing out that at this time, 9 out of 10 people they do not qualify for asylum.
He mentioned that the fact that the judges attend the processes here will determine practically immediately whether or not they qualify for asylum, and if they are rejected they will be sent back to their country of origin… “with this their cases will be heard in days and not in years” , affirmed the Republican for Texas during a meeting held with municipal authorities yesterday Thursday.
Speaking about the immigration crisis in El Paso and what to expect once the public health measure ends, he stated that the Biden administration must enforce immigration laws and work on immigration reform that includes proposals from both Democrats and Republicans instead of challenging the opposing party for disagreeing with their proposals.
In this sense, Fernando García, director of the Border Network for Human Rights, also spoke, after stating that the strategies being implemented by the Biden administration have not worked and worst of all, he emphasized, is that they are not focusing on providing services to these communities and instead of serving them they are making the decision to send soldiers.
He pointed out that the soldiers will not be able to help in these tasks nor will they be able to do civilian work. The soldiers are soldiers, they come armed and tell us that they are going to do office work. “We can’t ‘swallow’ that. Because they didn’t bring 1,500 people from FEMA or 1,500 lawyers to help these people or 1,500 nurses or doctors.”
The defender of the rights of migrants established that this is not the way and regretted that they had to resort precisely to sending soldiers. “It doesn’t make sense,” he explained.
He recounted that the presidential position sends the wrong message by resolving this migration problem with soldiers and not with an immigration policy as he said in the campaign… fairer.
“We are sorry and very disappointed that the president who promised that he would be a more humane policy is helping to militarize the border and treat immigrants as criminals,” he said after denouncing that last December a situation similar to the one experienced It is now where families sleep on the streets and lack basic services.
For his part, the Bishop of the Diocese of El Paso, Mark Seitz, stated that “all of us are concerned about the situation. It is always difficult to live on the street and soon the weather will be hotter… and where are they going to go?”, he asked after highlighting that there are many challenges and many concerns.
“We believe as a Church that the border is too militarized, but we are going to be very attentive to see if they use the soldiers for that only, for the logistical uses that they say they are going to do. They should not change that because the job of finding and receiving immigrants is something very specialized, it is not for a soldier”, added the spiritual leader of the Catholics here.
“I was a little surprised and alarmed because I thought that the military would be there but they will not be there to support the Border Patrol agents, to help them in the processes, in logistics,” said the Ricardo County judge. Samaniego. “Actually, there are only a few because they will be distributed along the border and of that amount, around 20 or 25 will be sent to El Paso,” he said.
Like the rest of the leaders in charge of understanding the migration crisis, he recognized that the situation will be very difficult, which is why they are preparing with the opening of schools, shelters and in the process that they will implement to release immigrants.
“I guarantee that here in El Paso we are going to minimize the problem. If right now you see 3,000 people on the streets, I would tell you that if we were not coordinated, there would be 12 or 14,000 people on the streets, ”he established without prejudice to recognizing the crisis that is being experienced.
He stressed that if it is processed correctly, that if things are done correctly, people will leave El Paso quickly because it is known that they –migrants– do not want to be here, “why do we delay them, if we do not do what we have what to do people are going to stay here and we are going to have very big problems in the city.”
Meanwhile Gonzales said he was “torn” by the fact that the Biden administration has made the decision to send the 1,500 soldiers to the border because he knows more than anyone that the mission of the Army is very different from that of civilians.
“Our troops are trained to fight and win wars, they should not be absorbed by this border crisis,” said the Texan legislator who spent 21 years of his life within the ranks of the Army and stressed: “Instead of soldiers, they should send 1,500 judges to the border so that these cases can be heard.”
