New El Paso migrant center has become a headquarters for migrant processing

A 360,000 square foot soft-sided U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) facility was constructed in Northeast El Paso in the spring when the number of migrant encounters at the border with Juarez was up to approximately 1,500 per day. Since the end of Title 42 on May 12, the number of encounters has decreased 60% and CBP in El Paso is now receiving daily flights carrying migrants from Tucson, AZ and Del Rio, TX. Those CBP sectors are now experiencing a higher number of daily encounters than El Paso and are now turning to El Paso for help just as El Paso turned to those areas for help earlier in the year.

“We are getting lateral flights from other parts of the border for processing here in El Paso,” said U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D, TX). “It’s important to recognize that the flow of people has not stopped south of us. While El Paso and other communities are seeing more manageable flows, there are still tens of thousands of people traveling through the (Panama) Darien Gap and attempting to make their way (north).”

Four bodies were pulled from the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas over the weekend

The Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) assisted the U.S. Border Patrol during a possible infant drowning on Saturday and found “multiple bodies floating around the river,” including a female adult and a female infant, according to a tweet by Lt. Chris Olivarez, a Texas DPS spokesperson. Four individuals in total were found during the rescue, two survived. On Sunday, the body of a male victim was recovered and the body of another female victim was recovered on Monday. The area of the Rio Grande where the bodies were recovered is particularly dangerous because it appears to be shallow enough to cross on foot, but has several steep drop-offs and strong undercurrents that are not apparent above the surface.

People from 20 different countries became U.S. citizens on July 4

While many Americans celebrated Independence Day on Tuesday, the U.S. welcomed 34 new citizens during a special holiday naturalization ceremony in Camden, NJ. During this first week of July more than 100 naturalization ceremonies will take place throughout the country, welcoming more than 5,000 new citizens.

This week's news blog was written by Jen Wellman.