Brownsville aid group wants more migrant shelter space
Team Brownsville, a migrant aid group, says more shelter space is needed, as arrivals continue by the thousands in Brownsville.
Some are staying the night at the bus station and others end up at the Ozanam Center along FM 313, where Sunday's deadly crash happened, leaving 8 people dead.
Between April 16th and May 5, the RGV Sector Border Patrol agents processed more than 30,000 migrants. That's a large population for the organizations that work to support them.
Team Brownsville works with migrants in and around the Brownsville bus station area.
"As we push the numbers up to a thousand or so of asylum seekers arriving at the Brownsville station every day, people are finding it challenging to find a hotel room or to find a shelter space," President of Team Brownsville Andrea Rudnik said.
Rudnik says her organization is asking the city to consider new options after the visit by DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and his announcement that local organizations and the city of Brownsville were eligible for funding.
"One is to actually expand our shelter capacity here in Brownsville, but I don't know that that's the direction the city wants to go," Rudnik said.
Brownsville says its emergency staff are receiving migrants when they're dropped off by federal authorities. The fire chief says the city is following the system already in place.
"This is a scalable process. We're looking at the near future, with any changes coming up, our process should be able to transition," Brownsville Fire Chief Jarrett Sheldon said.
Anticipating more challenges, Rudnick suggests adding shelter space at the bus station or the next door parking garage.
Sheldon says city staff are working on ideas to give the migrants more guidance and keep them away from traffic.