US: Immigrants, victims of cold

Washington, Dec 31 (Prensa Latina) Carboard boxes which were formerly pizza boxes, blankets and weak tents were the only shelters available for hundreds of immigrants in Texas, in the United States, when the National Weather Service announced the arrival of a winter storm of major proportions.

The city of El Paso then activated an emergency shelter with 1000 cot beds for those who got documents after turning themselves in to the Border Patrol, thus discarding dozens of families which were wandering the streets of the city, some with little children and babies.

Those without papers took refuge in mostly crowded sites, ran by churches and non-profit organizations. When temperatures began to abruptly go down, news media outlet images showed streets near a bus station covered by blankets and improvised bed linen as the only available means for undocumented immigrants to warm up.

That was the nightmarish scenario during the winter storm in the Texas city, already in a state of emergency due to the arrival of thousands of immigrants, many of whom turned in to authorities afraid of being deported.

Tensions on the US border have been growing for various days, since people began to gather there pending the end of a measure allowing asylum seekers to be expelled on health reasons and whose annulment, which was due to be in effect on December 21, was postponed by the Supreme Court.

Now immigrant human rights groups warned there of the excessive deployment of military forces which, according to a communique released, was trained to “repel and push back illegals.”

Anti-immigrant speech in the United States is gaining momentum, and actions, such as that of Arizona Governor, Doug Ducey, who ordered to put containers with barbed wire as barriers on the border with Mexico, generate criticism in the nation.

The most recent such action staged by Texas Governor, Greg Abbott, who on Christmas Eve sent three buses to the Washington D.C residence of U.S. Vice-President, Kamala Harris, with dozens of immigrants who were finally left on the streets with temperatures below zero.

Taken from Orbe