NBC News reported that nearly 12,000 people were apprehended by immigration agents per day at the U.S. southern border last week.
In response, a high-level meeting was held this week between Mexican President López Obrador, US Secretary of State Blinken, and Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas.
In Dallas, major immigration services providers hope the latest negotiations will increase resources for shelters that house people already in the United States.
Three times a week, buses carrying new immigrants to America arrive at Oak Row United Methodist Church. People released from South Texas jails after clearing background checks often arrive in Dallas without a clear path to where to go.
Church staff and volunteers help these men travel to families or sponsors across the country as they await their immigration court dates. In some cases, court dates can be anywhere from two weeks away to five years away.
“We are a church that strives to ease the process from jail to home with their families, wherever that may be. We welcome them and want to ease that transition. ,” said Associate Pastor Isabel Marquez.
Marquez told NBC 5 that a year ago he saw a lot of people from Haiti, Russia and Turkey.
“From one week to another the situation suddenly changed and we started accepting people only from Latin America. The majority come from Venezuela's political problems, poverty and Cuba,” Marquez said.
Venezuelans and Cubans are now part of a large caravan walking through southern Mexico. They join others from Central America as they head north towards the United States, with the caravan growing from 6,000 to an estimated 8,000 people over the past few days, according to NBC News.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Mexico for high-level talks with Mexican officials and the president, hoping to reduce the number of people flowing into Texas.
“What Secretary Blinken and Secretary Mayorkas are pushing is enforcement, enforcement, enforcement,” John Sandweg, former acting commissioner of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told NBC News.
Marquez, of Oak Lawn United Methodist, said shelters in the state also need more resources because many immigrants arrive in Dallas using shelters as their sponsored address.
“The shelters are full. We have to face it. We hear it a lot in the news. We're over capacity. So there's no way we can continue to serve these addresses,” Marquez said. .
She is asking immigration officials to verify that families and sponsors have the correct addresses before putting migrants on buses heading north, as it is often unclear whether they will arrive.
“We love them in this country. We know this country was built by immigrants. We know this country welcomes and welcomes all people. But we want to do this in a very safe way for all of us,” Marquez said.
