Eagle Pass Government and Businesses Sustaining Financial Losses Due to Migrant Surge
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2023
The City of Eagle Pass, Texas Interim City Manager, Ivan Morua, stated in an interview that the rocketing undocumented migrant surge during November and December 2023 on the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico border is estimated to cost the City a loss of up to one million dollars in decreased international bridge revenues, increased fire and police departments operating costs, and loss of sales tax revenues, straining the city’s annual fiscal budget for 2023-2024.
Local retail businesses, who generally depend on the Christmas holiday shopping for up to 70 percent of annual gross sales, report that their Christmas sales are fifty percent less than anticipated as a result of the U. S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) decision to partially close the Eagle Pass International Bridge No. 1 to vehicular traffic traveling from Mexico to the United States due to the reassignment of personnel to assist the U. S. Border Patrol process the arrival of tens of thousands of migrants seeking asylum or refuge.
The U. S. Border Patrol Del Rio Sector reported that during the past five days a total of 17,034 undocumented migrants were apprehended crossing the U. S.-Mexico border illegally, averaging 3,406.8 migrants per day. The majority of these migrants were apprehended in Eagle Pass while others in Del Rio and other areas of the Del Rio Sector.
On December 6, 2023, the U. S. Border Patrol reported a single day record of apprehensions of undocumented migrants in Eagle Pass with a total of 3,292. Eagle Pass is the epicenter of the current migrant surge facing the U. S.-Mexico border.
Eagle Pass Mayor Rolando Salinas, Jr. has pleaded to President Joe Biden, U. S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and the federal government to take immediate action to curtail the flow of undocumented migrants at Eagle Pass and the U. S.-Mexico border as well as provide financial assistance for the skyrocketing increased costs to provide security within border communities. Salinas has invited both to Eagle Pass for a personal visit of the current migrant surge in Eagle Pass, but neither has responded.
Mayor Salinas has been very vocal in interviews with news media, criticizing the federal government as not doing enough to stopping the rising influx of undocumented migrants seeking asylum at the U. S.-Mexico border, particularly in Eagle Pass.
Mayor Salinas also has criticized the Mexican government needing to do more to restrict the entry and flow of undocumented migrants through Mexico. Salinas noted that he and the City of Eagle Pass have become frustrated with the lack of effective policies and initiatives by both the United States and Mexican governments to restrict the growing numbers of migrants crossing the Rio Grande River through Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras border.
To add insult to injury, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to reinitiate commercial vehicle inspections of all incoming tractor-trailers from Mexico at the Eagle Pass and Del Rio Ports of Entry in retaliation of the increased migrant surge at the most critical trade period of the year, hoping to pressure Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and the governors of the Mexican border states with Texas to take harsher measures to stem the flow of migrants.
The commercial vehicle inspections has increased the border crossing times of commercial trucks from 30 minutes to one hour to up to eight to ten hours at the Eagle Pass-Piedras Negras Port of Entry, causing significant financial costs and losses to transportation, manufacturers, customs brokers, and businesses, including the City of Eagle Pass.
In April 2022 Governor Abbot ordered commercial vehicle inspections at the Texas-Mexico border, causing the United States gross domestic product take a $9.3 billion loss, including $4.3 billion in Texas alone.
The exacerbation of the record migrant entries at Eagle Pass, as well as the U.S.-Mexico border, and the lack of effective government policies to control the undocumented migrant surge are causing significant financial losses to the City of Eagle Pass and local businesses.
Currently, the United States Senate is debating a funding request from President Joe Biden to fund Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion, assist Israel with its defense against Hamas, provide Taiwan defenses against a potential China invasion, and increase funding for border security. Republican Senators are holding hostage the request seeking to change the U. S. Immigration laws concerning asylum and parole, which Democrats disapprove such tactics. Both parties remain at a stalemate.
Meanwhile, the City of Eagle Pass and local businesses’ financial losses mount each day the spiraling growth of undocumented migrants go unabated at the U. S.-Mexico border.
