The sun set on Thursday over a very familiar portrait of despair in the Rio Grande Valley. Some women carried crying babies while others carried bags of belongings to the muddy river bank, where a group of men waited for them with life jackets to take turns crossing Mexico to the United States. That day alone, officials said, 2,000 migrants were arrested in the valley.
“We came looking for a new opportunity,” said a man, who traveled with his wife and daughter.
American officials attributed this increase in part to the instability in the region, exacerbated by the pandemic, and to perceptions among migrants of more welcoming immigration policies under a new president.
‘We want to build a life here’
Roxana Rivera, 28, said she and her 6-year-old daughter left Honduras after the consecutive November hurricanes destroyed her home and everything in it.
The word at home, said Rivera, was that the United States now allowed people with children to cross the border freely – which was not entirely true. She heard it on the news, she said. Relatives in the United States transmitted the same information. Other migrants told similar stories.
Rivera said she was elated when the group she crossed the border with – mostly mothers and their children – was rescued by border agents. The migrants were prosecuted and then taken to a bus station in Brownsville, Texas, where they were tested for Covid-19 and offered supplies by nonprofits before their release. She planned to stay with relatives in Houston while her immigration case is being processed.
“You always dreamed of living in a house with your kids,” said Rivera, getting emotional. “Now we have nothing … We dream of having a home.”
Rivera said she sometimes regretted embarking on the long journey north on foot and by train – putting her daughter’s life at risk. Sometimes the girl asked for food and she had nothing to offer. Once, she said, her daughter was dehydrated. On another occasion, she had to seek medical attention in Mexico when her daughter had a fever.
Maria Mendoza, a 30-year-old migrant from El Salvador, looked exhausted when she arrived in Brownsville after being sued by immigration officials. She hoped to meet with relatives who live in Maryland, she said through tears.
Mendoza recalled that the raft that she and others used on a night crossing of Rio Grande overturned, sending several mothers and their children into the water. She said there were days when she didn’t eat so that her 6-year-old daughter would not go hungry. Her daughter remembered avoiding a snake on the way.
“More than anything, I want to reunite with my family,” she said. “We want to build a life here. A better future for our children.”
‘We have nowhere to put people’
Border agents meet 4,000 to 5,000 people daily, according to an Internal Security official.
“We are fully booked,” said Chris Cabrera, a spokesman for the National Border Patrol Council, which represents Border Patrol agents. “We are overcrowded. We have nowhere to put people.”
He added: “We have them in our custody and the system has crashed and there is nowhere to send them.”
Unaccompanied migrant children are another part of the administration’s problem.
On Wednesday, the number of unaccompanied children in custody of the Border Patrol reached more than 3,700, CNN learns. Many are held in prisons along the border.
The Border Patrol seized about 800 unaccompanied migrant children on Wednesday – exceeding the current daily average of 450, according to an Internal Security official.
About 8,800 unaccompanied children are in the custody of the United States’ Health and Human Services, the department confirmed on Thursday, down from about 7,700 the previous week.
‘The border is not open’
Roberta Jacobson, Biden’s coordinator for the southern border, said the government’s message to migrants is not the time to arrive.
“It is very important that people do not make the journey dangerous in the first place, that we provide them with alternatives to make that journey, because it is not safe on the way,” she said on Wednesday.
“And then, you know, if I could just emphasize … that it is very important that this message gets out there, because the perception is not the same as the reality in terms of the border not being open.”
Jacobson reiterated the government’s message: “The border is not open.” She said the Trump administration’s immigration policies “intentionally made things worse.”
“We cannot just undo four years of previous government actions overnight,” said Jacobson, adding that it will take “significant time to overcome” the effects of Trump’s immigration policy.
Still, the way the new administration is handling the situation has drawn criticism from Republicans and some Democrats.
In addition to unaccompanied children awaiting immigration cases, the Biden administration continued to refuse the majority of migrants. Some families are admitted to the USA on a case-by-case basis. A change in Mexican law that prohibits the detention of young children has prevented US immigration agents from refusing migrant families.
In Brownsville, Sandra, 38, said she fled Honduras after years of threats from a relative. Her full name was not published because she was a victim of domestic violence. One day, she said, the relative came to her house with a gun and opened fire. One of her children and other family members approached the man and prevented him from killing her.
She lived with her son in a tent town on the Mexican side of the border last year – where she taught kindergarten students – and is now awaiting an asylum case in the United States.
For now, a woman who runs a charity in Brownsville has opened her home to Sandra and her young son. She learned this week that she will have an immigration hearing in June. Wiping her tears, Sandra said she will never return to Honduras.
“I had to leave for good,” she said. “I cannot live in my country.”
CNN’s Ray Sanchez, Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands contributed to this story and Sanchez wrote in New York.