U.S. Border Patrol agents are releasing hundreds of illegal migrants on the streets of El Paso. Shelters are overcrowded and there is no place to house them.

Carlos Rivera, a Border Patrol spokesman, said that since Sept. 1, the daily average of encounters with migrants has grown from 900 to more than 1,100 per day. Rubén García, executive director of Annunciation House, said many more illegal migrants are released into the U.S. instead of being expelled to Mexico. Biden has tried to end the use of Title 42, using the excuse that the CDC said there is no longer a need for it since the coronavirus pandemic has waned. Garcia works with 14 shelters in the El Paso and New Mexico area. The El Paso Sector serves the El Paso area and all of the state of New Mexico.

Private shelters are filled to capacity. Most migrants now are from Venezuela and they can’t be expelled under Title 42. Venezuela won’t accept them back. There is nothing else to do with them but to release them in El Paso.

“Right now, provisional releases are a decompression effort that we’ve had to resort to, due to the fact that all other avenues at the moment are exhausted,” Rivera said.

The Border Patrol is on track to apprehend over two million illegal migrants by the end of the fiscal year in September. In 2021, the number of apprehensions was nearly 1.7 million and the number in 2020 was 203,000. In other words, the explosion of illegal migration can be traced back to Biden’s election. Rivera said that migrant encounters surpassed 228,000 through July, which surpasses the total of 195,000 for all of 2021 in the El Paso Sector. The Border Patrol processing center in El Paso is holding three times its capacity. That number is 3,500. So, illegal migrants are being released.

With its detention facility at capacity, the Border Patrol released nearly 500 migrants Wednesday and Thursday. Another 300 are expected to be released Friday, with an undetermined number over the weekend.

Once migrants are released, they generally await a court hearing to petition for asylum or to launch another defense to stay in the U.S., which could take months and sometimes years.

“These people still have an immigration obligation … So yes, it’s not that they are released into the community … without being responsible for reporting and showing up to court,” Rivera said.

The migrants are milling around the bus station and airport without money and means to purchase tickets out of El Paso. Most do not have sponsors. Garcia wants more churches to step up but many are limiting their assistance due to fears that the coronavirus will be spread. The truth is that faith-based charities always do step up in times of crisis but in this case, they shouldn’t have to. This is Biden’s border crisis, intentionally put in place by his feckless approach to border security. The county judge said that El Paso will not ask for assistance from the state.

In a statement, Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said the city of El Paso and Office of Emergency Management since 2018 have implemented a plan that provides food, health care services, housing at local shelters or the city’s welcoming center, and helps migrants arrange transportation.

“We are [focused] on the migrants themselves … ensuring they are welcomed at one of the local shelters, our NGOs or our welcoming center,” D’Agostino said.

“If they do not have a sponsor or means to pay for their travel, we have been providing charter buses to where they wish to go. NYC is the location chosen by the vast majority of Venezuelans, which is the group that is largely unsponsored.”

D’Agostino said the city continues to work with the Texas Department of Emergency Management, and has asked for funding support from the federal government.

Hmm. The City of El Paso is making arrangements for transportation out of the city for the illegal migrants. And, the Venezuelans want to go to NYC. Didn’t Eric Adams, the Mayor of NYC, call Governor Abbott all kinds of names and accuse him of performing political stunts for sending illegal migrants to his city, as though they were bused against their will?

This week nearly 500 illegal migrants were released in El Paso. More are expected to be released in the next few days. The city and county governments are scheduled to consider proposals to set up a migrant processing center on Monday. They will also discuss contracting with a charter bus company.

El Paso Sector officials confirmed that the Border Patrol released 133 Venezuelan male illegal migrants on the streets Wednesday and another 350 of unspecified nationalities on Thursday. Some were dropped off at the Greyhound Bus Station downtown. While they spent the night on the sidewalks and benches around the station, people dropped off bottled water and food for them. Americans are generous people. Joe Biden’s border crisis has cynically taken advantage of that fact.

Now the El Paso Sector is receiving 1,000 illegal migrants a day. Shelters that would typically take them in after processing and release are desperate for volunteers. The city council has chosen a bus company to transport the illegal migrants out of the area.

El Paso City Council will consider ratifying a contract with Gogo Charters LLC to transport migrants out of the region.

The company was contracted on Aug. 26 under an emergency ordinance the city approved in May that allows officials to skip the bidding process. The $2 million contract would be for services through December 2023, according to city documents.

The city government and the city-county Office of Emergency Management have chartered five buses to New York City and one to Dallas this summer, including one on Wednesday.

City officials in an email response late Friday said they are providing food, drink, and medical services to migrants at shelters and hotels, as well as transportation to outside cities, but didn’t provide details or specifically address how they’ve responded to those released to the streets this week.

The email also said the city has asked for support from the federal government in the form of “transportation and funding options,” but didn’t provide any details or respond to follow-up questions.

Garcia closed one of the region’s largest migrant shelters last month due to a lack of funding and volunteers. It hosted 25,000 illegal migrants released by border agencies this year. The Biden border crisis is intentional. DHS should be arranging for reimbursement for local agencies and providing shelter buildings for illegal migrants in the processing stage. Biden has created a humanitarian crisis never before seen along the border. He simply doesn’t care.