CBP Sending Venezuelan Migrants To Offices Without Notice: Report

When Venezuelan native Wilfredo Molina arrived in the U.S., he informed the border agents he wished to go to Miami but didn’t have an address. The border agents directed Molina to what he assumed was a shelter in midtown Manhattan but it was a gray office building. He said it was a fake building, and he had no idea what it was. Molina was one of the migrants who had no idea where they were heading, nor did the individuals at the addresses listed on their paperwork.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which oversees the Border Patrol, did not respond to repeated inquiries about families and people interviewed and the addresses assigned to them.

But the snafus indicated a pattern of Border Patrol agents, specifically in Texas. They are sending migrants without friends or family in the U.S. to offices that do not get notice. In most cases, there is not much space to house migrants. Yet because those addresses appear on migrants’ documents, critical notices may later be sent, AP News reported.

Administrative offices of Catholic Charities in New York and San Antonio; an El Paso, Texas, church; a private home in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts; and a group operating homeless shelters in Salt Lake City, are just some of the addresses on the immigrants' documents.

A Venezuelan family that came to the American Red Cross' Denver administrative headquarters was directed to multiple shelters before an individual volunteered to take them in. Also, migrants who arrived in New York ended up in shelters, hotels, or temporary apartments that the city helped them find and pay for.

A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest number ever recorded in a fiscal year. Just in the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times more in 2021, surpassing 2 million for the first time, ABC News reported.

KTAR News reported that most of the migrants interviewed in New York had hopped on government-funded buses that Texas and the city of El Paso have been sending regularly to the northeast city. Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Doug Ducey of Arizona were also sending migrants released at the perimeter to Democratic strongholds, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. They were criticized for not notifying local officials of the plans. Republicans said they are emphasizing issues with President Joe Biden’s immigration guidelines.