Migrants camp out in El Paso amid state of emergency

Sobering photos show hundreds of migrants camped out in the streets of El Paso overnight Monday, as the city’s emergency order went into effect in anticipation of the end of Title 42.

The asylum seekers are seen in the images on makeshift beds constructed out of cardboard and sheets, holding their belongings close, as border towns brace for an anticipated flood of migrants once Title 42 is lifted on May 11.

Throngs of migrants were packed tightly on El Paso streets and sidewalks into the early morning hours, with some taking rest while laying across blankets while others sat perched on the street’s curb.

The asylum seekers photographed in the epicenter of the border crisis appeared to mainly be adults.

El Paso declared a state of emergency starting Monday ahead of the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era law that allowed Border Patrol to send migrants from certain countries back to Mexico.

Officials expect to see up to 13,000 people crossing the border each day once the policy is lifted.

Even with a little over a week to spare until the policy ends, more than 73,000 migrants have crossed the southern border illegally in the last 10 days, according to border officials.

Out of those entries, a stunning 16,985 “gotaways” — who were either spotted by agents or caught by motion sensor cameras — managed to enter the country and avoid detention.

On Monday, US Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said that 22,220 people had been apprehended at all US borders in the span of 72 hours and that another 51,560 migrants were caught during the previous week.

Agents said in the last 10 days they prevented 19 sex offenders, six gang members and one criminal convicted of murder from entering the country at both the northern and southern borders.

Thousands of people eager to gain asylum and start a new life in the US hand themselves over to agents at the southern border each day, but most up until now have been processed and sent back over the border under Title 42.

Officials have warned that the number of migrants at the border will only increase as Title 42 comes to an end.

In El Paso, officials expect anywhere between 12,000 to 40,000 migrants who have been waiting on the Mexican side to cross into the city once Title 42 expires. In preparation for the influx, the city has started building a third intake center for processing migrants.

“May 11, they believe, will be the day that they can — without any documentation — they can come into the United States and to continue to move on,” said El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser Sunday.

“Which is really one of the furthest things from what’s going to happen,” Leeser added.

“We’re not opening the borders, and the borders are not open today, and they will not be open on May 12.”