Homeland Security shut down some lanes of traffic at a Mexican border crossing Wednesday and shifted personnel to help with the latest crisis, a new surge of thousands of migrants streaming into Eagle Pass, Texas.
Reports on the ground said more than 4,000 people swarmed over Wednesday morning and more were still coming in the afternoon, overwhelming Customs and Border Protection’s ability to handle them.
CBP, which operates both the Border Patrol and the legal crossings, said it was taking people from a vehicle lane and a railway crossing and moving them to help keep an eye on the mass of people now camped on the U.S. side.
“In response to this influx in encounters, we will continue to surge all available resources to expeditiously and safely process migrants,” the agency said in a statement.
CBP also vowed to “maximize consequences” against those who came without a legal status, though that has been difficult for the department to follow through on in many cases.
The surge is the latest to test the Biden administration, which has been unable to derail the flow of people and has struggled to welcome them once they do arrive.
Officials had taken a victory lap this summer after border numbers dropped following the end of the pandemic emergency in May. But the numbers climbed again in July and have reportedly surged higher in August. CBP has yet to release those August numbers.
Video and photos show thousands of migrants streaming into a single location at the border. The tidal wave of migrants bedeviled the administration, reminiscent of two years ago, when 15,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, rushed the border at Del Rio, Texas.
In the earlier incident, after a tense encounter between horse-mounted agents and migrants, President Biden suggested the migrants were whipped and Vice President Kamala Harris said it harkened back to Black slaves being whipped.
A CBP investigation determined that no migrants were whipped, though it faulted two agents for harsh language.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.