Editor’s note: Welcome to Border Crossroads, a series of dispatches from America’s southern border, where reporter Nico Brambila and multimedia producer Tom Hellauer are chronicling the crisis that is spilling over into Denver and other interior cities.
EL PASO, TEXAS — Border crossings in El Paso, Texas are down, but officials in this west Texas town do not expect the reprieve to last.
While Denver officials are unsure how many of the more than 38,000 immigrants from Central and South America who crossed the border illegally came through El Paso, one thing appears clear — the surges in this border town can be felt 600 miles away in Colorado’s most populous city.
Officials here in El Paso are bracing for more arrivals.
Releases by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in El Paso correspond to the waves of arriving immigrants to Denver.
Just 181 immigrants were released in El Paso Monday, according to the city’s dashboard .
Denver saw just 42 new arrivals.
That’s a far cry from the 2,000 El Paso had been seeing daily, which translated to 100- to 200-plus immigrants arriving overnight in Denver.