(NewsNation) — The number of migrants crossing into El Paso, Texas, declined in the last half of December, officials said, giving the city some relief from previous spikes.
Border Patrol agents told Border Report that Title 42 restrictions staying in place, cold weather, the holiday season and the arrival of 600 National Guard troops were factors in a slowdown in illegal crossings.
In December, Border Patrol agents apprehended an average of 2,150 migrants each day. Now, migrant crossings have dropped, at times to fewer than 1,000 per day, according to the city of El Paso’s migrant dashboard.
The city has extended an emergency ordinance due to “the humanitarian and public safety crisis resulting from a mass migration through the city of El Paso.”
“The decrease in daily encounters, in addition to the support received by the city and county leaders, has led to a significant decrease of those migrants held in custody at the Central Processing Center. The last week of December saw an average of 1,450 migrants in custody” at CBP/USBP processing facilities, the Border Patrol told Border Report on Tuesday.
Local nonprofits and NGOs are seeing a decline in the number of migrants coming to them for services, as well. But the facilities say they still need help dealing with the volume because they are still over capacity.
Meanwhile, in Yuma, Arizona, Border Patrol says it is increasing foot patrols through the city as unprocessed migrants are being denied entry to shelters and are buying bus tickets to get further into the U.S.
Agents have been apprehending undocumented individuals around the bus station downtown. They can’t get into the shelters unless they have their paperwork from Customs and Border Protection, so they end up on the streets.
Border Patrol officials reported 178 migrants were found on commercial buses at checkpoints over the weekend. Once found, the migrants are transported to a facility to be processed.
The sector has logged more than 106,000 migrant encounters since the start of this fiscal year that began Oct. 1.
