EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — Migrants are no longer being seen lining up along the border fence in El Paso like they were before Title 42 expired.
However, some migrants can still be seen outside of Sacred Heart Church in South El Paso but drastically fewer than the week before Title 42 expired.
As we reported a few days before the end of Title 42, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement gave migrants papers telling them to turn themselves in and many of them did.
Businesses in the area noticing a drastic shift in the number of people.
“We noticed that they were gone. Like all of a sudden, you know, drastically. So it has been very slow, very quiet. You still see some of them around. They still come around here and buy some things, but not like I used to be,” said Jesus Solano, the owner of La Tiendita, a store in South El Paso.
Solano said business was booming when the hundreds of migrants were staying on the streets in the area.
“Right now it’s been very, very slow, very. And they just needed a lot of different types of food and drinks and what it is they say before and now, you know, they’re just trying to buy a little bit, but it’s definitely made an impact now,” Solano said.
A customer, who had come by two weeks ago, was shocked when he came up to the window of La Tiendita.
“Wow, just in a week it’s amazing what’s happened,” said Daniel Scutchfield, who stopped by the store for a drink on his way through town.
Scutchfield described what he saw during his last visit.
“It was lined up all the way down and like I said, I was talking and he said, ‘Get out of my line I’ve got to feed them,'” Scutchfield said.
Migrants, whom KTSM 9 News and Border Report spoke to outside of Sacred Heart, say they have been processed and released by Border Patrol.
A man from Venezuela could be seen sitting on the sidewalk outside of the church with his pregnant wife and two young children. He said they have been staying outside because he has been sick. He explained that it has been harder to leave El Paso after being released by Border Patrol than they had thought it would be.
“We’re a little more relaxed, a little more at ease, but not really, not completely because we still need to get to our destination. We need to settle in. We need to find jobs and start a new life,” Jose Gregorio Ramirez said in Spanish.
El Paso County Judge Ricardo explained that it’s hard to know exactly how many migrants there are in the community just by going off of shelter numbers.
“It now is very deceiving because they are not at the shelter. They don’t like being at the shelters. They’d rather be within the community. So they have learned how to, especially when there’s like, for example, Cubans that have gone through that situation that might be willing to take them or offer them jobs,” Samaniego.
