Texas Mayor Urges Biden to Address Massive Migrant Camp Forming under Local Bridge
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Del Rio, Texas, mayor Bruno Lozano, a Democrat, has called on the Biden administration to address the crisis created by the more than 10,000 migrants waiting under a highway bridge to be processed by Border Patrol agents.
Lozano wrote on Twitter that there were 10,503 migrants camped under the Del Rio international bridge, which leads to the border crossing with Mexico, as of 6:45 p.m. on Thursday. That number was up from 8,200 the same morning.
“President Biden, have you been briefed on the ongoing crisis yet?” Lozano wrote. “For reference, 10,503 people is inching close to 1/3 of the population of Del Rio, Texas.”
President Biden, for reference, 10,503 people is inching close to 1/3 of the population of Del Rio, Texas. @POTUS @VP @DHSgov @FoxNews @GregAbbott_TX @cnnbrk @ABC @NBCNews @CBSNews
— Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano (@BrunoRalphy) September 17, 2021
Lozano posted a video near the bridge in which he said Border Patrol agents were “overwhelmed” by the situation, alleging that open border presented a “terrorism” threat:
Update from earlier today. pic.twitter.com/5hXu3eYyB5
— Mayor Bruno “Ralphy” Lozano (@BrunoRalphy) September 17, 2021
Migrants at the bridge have crossed back into Mexico in order to buy food to take back to the American side of the border. Footage from Washington Post reporter Arelis Hernandez showed migrants crossing the Rio Grande from the Mexican side in Ciudad Acuña:
Here’s the view from the Ciudad Acuña. Hundreds if not thousands of people, mostly Haitian migrants, crossing near a point BP had told me before was dangerous spot, where the river is super shallow and people are waiting on the US side. https://t.co/RLbv9uFuNk pic.twitter.com/ShUsJ8e69t
— Arelis R. Hernández (@arelisrhdz) September 17, 2021
“I see brave people who instead of being trapped by conformity chose to find a better life,” Wendy Guillaumetre, 31, told the Post. Guillaumetre, originally from Haiti, lived in Chile for four years before deciding to take his wife and three-year-old daughter to the U.S.
Representative Tony Gonzales (R., Texas), whose district includes Del Rio, said the camp under the international bridge “is as bad as I’ve ever seen it, and I’m not taking that lightly,” in comments to Fox News.
“When you see the amount of people and how chaotic it is and how there is literally no border, folks are coming to and from Mexico with ease, its gut wrenching and its dangerous,” Gonzales said.
