AUSTIN, Texas — An endless flow of immigrants streamed across the Rio Grande onto U.S. soil in Eagle Pass daily this week, sending the Border Patrol deep into a "catch and release" state of operations and spooking residents unaccustomed to the unfamiliar faces showing up in their once-quiet neighborhoods.

Maverick County Sheriff Tom Schmerber, an Eagle Pass native, said "security" in town is a growing concern given how many people have already been released after entering Eagle Pass this week.

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"I feel worried because the people in the community here, some are afraid because they see strangers walking through their neighborhood. They don’t know who they are or what their intentions are," said Schmerber, who added that break-ins, burglaries, and drug seizures are occurring in the community.

Internal Border Patrol data viewed by the Washington Examiner revealed that 3,054 people were in custody in the Eagle Pass/Del Rio region of south-central Texas as of Thursday morning — far beyond the Border Patrol's maximum facility capacity of 1,845.

The overcapacity problem has prompted Border Patrol to process and then release or remove people as fast as possible to avoid a clog in the pipeline. It means immigrants who do not make an asylum claim will overwhelmingly be released with a notice to appear in court in several years, according to three federal officials with firsthand knowledge of how immigrants are being processed.

One federal law enforcement agent at the bridge described the past few days as "organized chaos." Among Border Patrol agents from rank and file to management, agents feel the priority is cycling through people in order to accommodate the new arrivals that stream across every hour, day and night.

"It’s always 'let’s get as many bodies out of here as we can,'" the agent wrote in a message. "Intake is a mess."

But with only one nonprofit group in the remote city of 30,000 residents to receive immigrants who get released into the community, Border Patrol has been forced to release countless immigrants directly onto the street. Many immigrants have no money and no idea where to go or who to trust. San Antonio is roughly two hours away by car.

"I'm seeing them walking the street with a bag in their hand. They're lost. They don’t know what to do," said Eagle Pass Police Chief Federico Garza Jr.

The Eagle Pass Police Department issued a statement Thursday after receiving a shocking number of 911 calls from residents worried about individuals and groups of strangers walking through neighborhoods and loitering along roads around town.

Garza told the Washington Examiner that he is doing his best to quell citizens' concerns, but admitted that he has his own fears for public safety given that so many people in desperate situations and with unknown intentions are being dropped off into the community.

"These individuals have already been processed by federal agencies and are more than likely walking to the local bus pickup area," the Eagle Pass Police Department reassured residents worried about gotaways who evaded Border Patrol and were now wandering through town. "The release of these individuals is not a cause for panic or to notify law enforcement unless these individuals are in the commission of a crime or other illegal activity."

Further stoking concerns among residents is that the majority of immigrants in Eagle Pass are single men without families as opposed to families, according to six federal and local law enforcement officers.

Immigrants who cross the Rio Grande into downtown Eagle Pass are walked by Border Patrol or state military to a staging area under a bridge before either being taken to a tent facility 12 miles outside town to shower and eat or sent to other parts of the border to be removed by agents in less-impacted regions.

Aside from the influx of people walking the streets in town, Schmerber said his deputies have been busy outside city limits with vehicle pursuits of human smugglers.

A senior Border Patrol agent who studies intelligence on migration patterns south of the border said the word is out that crossing into Eagle Pass will more than likely lead to being released onto the street — the end goal for immigrants who have paid or gone into debt to cartels who move them over the border.

"They go to Piedras Negras/Eagle Pass because they have informed each other via social media and chat rooms that they are being released quicker there than other places and given a report date of three years from their release date," the upper management Border Patrol agent wrote in a text message.

Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) maintained in posts to X, formerly Twitter, that the state was still active at the border and effectively "repelling migrants" even though thousands have made it across the river and onto U.S. soil since Sunday.

The city remains in a state of emergency through next Tuesday.

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Schmerber validated residents' concerns given the lack of federal assistance from Washington but shrugged it off, not out of indifference but a place of helplessness.

"I haven’t seen any help from the Biden administration," said Schmerber. "Send extra help from up north to help process so agents here can get back to work on the river."