Authorities flew 400 people suspected of entering the United States illegally to Arizona over the weekend and released them at bus stops because detention facilities were full after a surge in migrants, officials said on Thursday, Reuters reported.
Detention facilities in Texas overflowed with migrants for the first time over the past month as a large influx of Central Americans crossed the border into the Rio Grande Valley, said Andy Adame, a Border Patrol spokesman in Tucson, Arizona, according to Reuters.
"We have enough manpower, it's due to detention space," Adame said in explaining why the immigrants, mostly families with young children, were sent to Arizona, Reuters reported.
Many people who cross the border illegally from Mexico are quickly returned by the Border Patrol, but those from Central America and other regions are supposed to be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement so they can be flown home, Reuters reported.
According to ICE, the migrants will be required to report within 15 days to an agency office near where they were dropped off, and their cases will then be handled based on immigration enforcement priorities, according to Reuters.
The 400 migrants who crossed into Texas were transferred into the custody of ICE and released, dropped off at bus stops in Tucson and Phoenix, Reuters reported.
Many Republicans in Congress and some state lawmakers say the federal government is not doing enough to secure the border, while a number of groups push for policy reform to allow the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country to obtain a pathway to citizenship, according to Reuters.
Federal officials under President Barack Obama have focused their immigration enforcement priorities on turning back unauthorized immigrants stopped in border regions and deporting others outside of those areas who are convicted of crimes, Reuters reported.
