EL PASO, Texas — It is hard to imagine--risking your entire life to cross the border illegally.
But for thousands of people from Central America and Mexico, the risk is worth it if it means a chance to live in the United States.
For border cities like El Paso, there has been an influx in migrants crossing the border illegally in recent weeks.
On Monday, dozens of Texas lawmakers toured one of the holding facilities.
“It's so sad to see, we saw over a thousand children today in the facility," August Pfluger, Texas congressman for district 11, said. "Parents aren't with them and they are basically being dropped off at the border and being told to find an agent on the north side of the border.”
According to Dylan Corbett, the executive director for the Hope Board Institute, many of the migrants are seeking asylum.
He believes the alternative for these families is much worse.
“I want to I'd love to know what the alternative is? Should we dump the children back in Juarez or Central America...children who have risked everything to come to the US border seeking safety? Seeking freedom? Is he saying we would rather send them back to cities in Mexico where they will be trafficked?"
Corbett says most of the migrants felt there was no other choice but to cross the border illegally.
“People don’t want to have migrate and leave their families," Corbett said. "They don’t want to leave their communities unless there is a significant need. These are the most vulnerable of the vulnerable.”
According to border patrol agents, on average 200 people are apprehended at the El Paso border a night.
“The reality is as long as you have families that do not believe their children have a future, an opportunity to work, a future where they have an opportunity to be safe," Corbett said. "You’re going to see migration to the U.S. border.”
But we have never seen migration mixed with COVID-19.
The pandemic’s created strict capacity regulations and many of the facilities are overflowing.
“There isn’t a crisis here at the border. There’s a situation we need to manage," Corbett said. "There’s a challenge we can rise to but we must make sure we don’t politicize it. Because we’re talking about people’s lives. We do not need anymore death and suffering we need solutions.”
As to what exactly those solutions are?
We still do not know.
Both sides of the Rio Grande are just waiting on the Biden administration to make a plan here at the border.