SAN ANTONIO – Over the past few days, thousands of migrants have arrived in Eagle Pass, and some have already made their way to San Antonio.
All around, inside and outside of the Migrant Resource Center on the 7000 block of San Pedro, groups of dozens of migrants can be seen everywhere.
“When you got here, how were the things inside?” KSAT12 reporter John Paul Barajas asked.
“We haven’t even made it inside, we just got here,” a Venezuelan migrant said.
The first migrant we spoke to asked to remain anonymous. He and his daughter had just arrived from Eagle Pass. He didn’t know how long it would take to get inside the MRC, but according to another migrant who arrived Tuesday, it took him half a day.
“I got here At 11 last night…”
“But you didn’t get inside until…” Barajas asked.
“Not until 9 in the morning, so like 9-10 hours,” he said.
Catholic Charities operates the MRC and they sent KSAT 12 a statement.
“The MRC Centro de Bienvenida has seen an increase in migrants from the border over the last four weeks. We are averaging 750 per day. Countries of origin include Venezuela, Honduras, Haiti, Guatemala, and Colombia. Once in our care, our role is to provide humanitarian aid with food, clothing, and case management.”
KSAT 12 was not given a number of how many migrants are currently at the MRC. The capacity of the center is 700, but KSAT 12 did not get a response when asked about how they’re handling an average number of people that’s larger than their capacity.
Throughout the day, empty charter and school buses arrived to pick migrants up. KSAT 12 asked Catholic Charities where they were taken and they said, “likely the airport.”
“I got a bed; I got three beds because I have my wife and three boys,” a migrant said.
That migrant says he feels lucky to have a bed, because not everyone will, adding many people are sleeping behind dumpsters and in the ditch behind the MRC.
“Thank god that I’m here because everyone has a dream or a mission, but there’s a lot of migrants that are coming,” he said.
KSAT 12 has contacted both city and county leaders about how they plan to handle the influx of migrants, but they have not yet responded.