BROWNSVILLE, Texas – On Thursday, there was a heavy presence of local, state, and federal authorities on the United States border with Mexico in Brownsville.
There also was a heavy presence of migrants crossing into their new homeland hours before the end of Title 42.
The end of the pandemic era immigration policy is expected to create an even greater surge than what has been seen in this border city in recent weeks.
On Thursday, KPRC 2 Investigates witnessed hundreds of migrants by the city’s bus station being processed as well as waiting for a ride out of Brownsville.
Nearly every migrant we spoke with made it clear they are not staying in Texas. Cities like New York, Chicago, Miami and Atlanta were referenced the most as final destinations with Houston only mentioned twice among several dozen migrants we connected with over the last two days.
For residents in Brownsville, the crisis of migrants overwhelming their city has progressed by the day.
“The day before yesterday we were at an 8. Now we’re at 10,” said Louis Medina.
The primary challenge according to locals like Daniel Barrera, providing migrants with food,
“The people are hungry. The people need food,” said Barrera.
He’s been seeing migrants hungry for a meal for weeks. We saw it in no time upon our arrival.
“We are very hungry,” said Jorge Guzman, a sushi chef who left Venezuela over a month ago.
His goal is to eventually get to Miami in a few days and start the process of working in restaurants again.
“I’ll work in whatever I have to because you can’t be lazy for anything,” he said.
David Melendez already is working on odd jobs at a gas station across from the bus terminal to get to New York City. He wasn’t alone as others created a car wash. The focus by all, to earn money to get out of town.
In the case of Melendez, he’s trying to get to San Antonio so his family can buy him a plane ticket to New York City. Flights are more cost effective from San Antonio than from Brownsville and most families are attempting to secure funding anyway possible to get reacquainted with their family, friends or a church sponsor in another state.
Medina believes there is a potential solution for his city.
“They’re not staying here. They are going through here. So the solution is try and get them where they are going,” said Medina.