By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul L. Ortiz today said he believes federal agents will be able to remove all of the migrants under the international bridge within a week.
Ortiz, who formerly served as chief of the Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector and who calls the Queen City home, met with dozens of print, television, radio and online reporters during a press conference just outside the border fence near the migrant encampment.
Ortiz first introduced his interagency partners and thanked them for their support and assistance.
He then spoke about the unprecedented migrant situation under the city’s international bridge.
“The Border Patrol, in conjunction with our interagency partners, has taken a number of steps to ensure the safety and security of the migrants, the local community and our agents and partners who are working to address the increase of migrant arrivals in Del Rio, Texas,” Ortiz said.
“We are bringing additional resources to assist with security, migrant care, transportation and processing. We are providing food, water, portable toilets, towels. Emergency medical technicians are available for first aid. If someone needs medical care beyond what our EMTs can provide, we are working with local medical facilities for additional care,” the chief added.
The sweltering Texas heat is also an issue, Ortiz said.
“We are working around the clock to expeditiously move migrants out of the heat, elements and from underneath this bridge to our processing facilities in order to quickly process and remove individuals from the United States consistent with our laws and our policies,” Ortiz said.
“The Department of Homeland Security is implementing a comprehensive strategy and leading a whole-of-government approach to managing this situation in a humane and timely manner. Within the next 24 hours, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will have surged nearly 600 agents, officers and DHS volunteer force personnel to the Del Rio Sector to improve control of this area,” he added.
Ortiz said the Del Rio Port of Entry remains closed, with all traffic being rerouted from Del Rio to Eagle Pass.
“The U.S. Border Patrol is coordinating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the U.S. Coast Guard to move individuals from Del Rio to other processing locations. Over the last two days, we have moved approximately 3,300 individuals. We expect that number to increase in the days ahead. We are working with source and transit countries to accept migrants who previously resided in those countries,” Ortiz said.
“DHS is also working to accelerate and increase the frequency and capacity of Title 42 flights to expel individuals to Haiti and other countries of origin,” he added.
Ortiz again thanked “all my partners here.”
Finally, Ortiz had a message for would-be migrants.
“I also want to reiterate that migrants attempting or considering making the journey to our borders should know that we are still enforcing the CDC Title 42 order and that they will not be allowed to enter the United States. They will be removed, and they will be sent back to their country of origin as mandated under our current law,” Ortiz said.
“Our partners at the State Department are working to ensure that there is adequate support when they land in Haiti,” the chief added.
After his presentation, Ortiz took several questions from reporters.
In answer to the first question regarding the timeline of the migrant removal, Ortiz said he expected at least 3,000 migrants transferred from underneath the bridge to processing centers or to flight lines within the next 24 hours.
“We have set a goal for ourselves, and we are doing everything we can to achieve that goal. I will tell you that over the midnight hours, we did not have one crossing (of migrants from Mexico) into this area, and that is certainly very optimistic and promising,” Ortiz replied.
“One of the questions that everyone is asking is why Del Rio? Why now? We’ve seen these types of surges in the Rio Grande Valley for example. What does your intelligence tell you?” CNN’s Rosa Flores asked.
“There’s a couple of things our intelligence is telling us about the Haitian migration flow. When I was the chief here in 2019, we faced a similar influx. It just wasn’t the same magnitude of what we’ve seen over the last four or five days. Haitians and folks from western Africa traditionally cross in the Del Rio Sector area because they have known individuals previously who have crossed in this area. They say the community across the border in Acuña is relatively safe, and so traditionally it’s word-of-mouth,” Ortiz replied.
“Certainly what happened this time is that number doubled and then tripled relatively quickly, and so we had to move resources in here as quickly as we could to manage that, and we’re getting to the point where we’ve got a pretty good handle on the migrant population that’s under the bridge,” Ortiz added.
An NBC news reporter asked the chief if there was “any timetable right now where every single person under this bridge can be processed.”
“Over the next six or seven days, our goal is to process the 12,662 migrants that we have underneath that bridge as quickly as we possibly can,” Ortiz replied.
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