Normally, Eagle Pass, Texas, is a small and sleepy border city. Now, with a huge influx of law enforcement on one side of the border and an immigrant caravan on the other, it's as far from sleepy as can be. As of Tuesday, the city park that sits along the river border was closed to the public. Beyond it, tall metal gates for a two-mile fence securing the two ports of entry were open, but state troopers blocked anyone who might want to enter or exit. Inside the park, and law enforcement cars were parked every 50 to 100 feet, facing the Rio Grande. POLICE IN RIOT GEAR LINE UP AT BORDER TO GREET MIGRANT CARAVAN AS US VOWS, 'WE STAND READY' A police helicopter swooped by occasionally. And more law enforcement is on the way. In all, 250 troops currently at the Arizona border will soon be coming to Eagle Pass. What prompted this buildup of security is a migrant caravan that arrived Monday afternoon just across the river from Eagle Pass in Piedras Negras, Mexico. About 1,800 people, mostly Hondurans, have been making their way slowly toward the U.S. border, many of them intent on asylum. The government of the Mexican state of Coahuila arranged for buses to take them through the last leg of the trip, and delivered them to an unused factory, which has been converted into a shelter. Mexican police soon surrounded the facility to make sure no one leaves, threatening deportation if anyone should try. People are told they must wait for their turn to be sent to the port, where asylum claims can be heard. Unlike bigger cities, the port in Eagle Pass can process only 16-20 asylum claims a day. Each interview for each claim takes two to three hours. “The status quo is not sustainable,” said Paul Del Rincon, the port director at the Eagle Pass port of entry. At that glacial pace, working through 1,800 people will take months. Rincon, speaking directly to those in the caravan, said: “We ask that you be patient with our process. Wait until you are called.” The chief patrol agent in the Del Rio sector for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) put a finer point on it. “There is a right way to seek asylum,” said Matthew Hudak. “If someone was to enter illegally, that is criminal.” Even before the caravan arrived in Piedras Negras, Hudak said, rescues and arrests were up in his sector. He and his agents have 209 miles of border to patrol. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP At the end of a press briefing, Hudak told the media that overnight, agents had caught a group of 35 people crossing illegally in the Eagle Pass vicinity. Some of the detainees claimed to have been with the caravan, though officials admit, that’s hard to confirm. The Rio Grande Valley, El Paso and other areas on America's southern border have already been struggling with illegal crossings. “Now it’s our turn,“ a Border Patrol agent told Fox News.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — Hundreds of migrants in a new caravan that just reached the U.S. border may have to wait in Northern Mexico for months, because the U.S. agents in the tiny Texas town where they want to cross can only currently process fewer than 20 migrants a day, according to Customs and Border Protection officials. More than 1,800 migrants arrived in Piedras Negras, Mexico, on Tuesday, just across the Rio Grande from Eagle Pass, Texas. Border agents in Eagle Pass can process fewer than 20 asylum seekers a day, but as of now, there are no plans to beef up the number of officers who can administer a credible-fear interview, the first step towards seeking asylum. In a credible-fear interview, an asylum seeker tries to establish there is reason to fear returning home. The Trump administration is sending 250 active duty troops to Eagle Pass in addition to more Border Patrol agents to enforce border security. Texas Department of Public Safety has deployed dozens of state troopers to Eagle Pass in anticipation of the caravan. CBP's ability to process asylum seekers depends on the speed with which Immigration and Customs Enforcement can transport immigrants from the border into detention. The process of allowing only a small number of immigrants to be processed per day is known as metering, and was used for short periods of particularly high surges of immigrants under the Obama administration. However, the Trump administration has continued to use metering for months in San Ysidro, California, triggering the creation of migrant camps in Tijuana. Last month, two Central American boys were lured out of their migrant camp in Tijuana and murdered. In Tijuana, immigrants keep an informal list of names who are assigned to each number and only those called — usually about 40 — are allowed to approach the port of entry each day. Immigration advocates worry about the poor conditions immigrants may face if they are forced to wait in Piedras Negras, a small town with little capacity to care for a large number of newcomers with no homes. They have called for the administration to deploy more resources, including asylum officers, to the border to help process more immigrants per day. The Department of Homeland Security recently announced that it will begin turning back those asylum seekers who do reach the port of entry, starting in San Ysidro with plans to expand to other parts of the border. Those asylum seekers will have to wait in Mexico until their asylum cases can be heard. A spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety declined to comment. A spokesperson for CBP did not respond to a request for comment.<doc-sep>
(CNN) — Eagle Pass, Texas, is usually a pretty quiet place. But this week, it has turned into an immigration showdown involving hundreds of law enforcement officers and a migrant caravan. The migrants, about 1,800 of them, are being housed by the Mexican government across the Rio Grande in Piedras Negras. The Central American immigrants want to come to the United States but US authorities are telling them to stay in Mexico while they wait through the process of seeking asylum. The migrants began showing up Monday, arriving along the border on more than 50 buses. In preparation for the migrants’ arrivals, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, sent 500 officers from the department of public safety to Eagle Pass, according to Mayor Ramsey English Cantu. JULIO CESAR AGUILAR/AFP/Getty Images Members of the US Border Police guard the Rio Bravo, natural border between Eagle Pass, Texas and Piedras Negras, Mexico, on Thursday. A CNN crew there Thursday night saw the Department of Public Safety along with Border Patrol vehicles parked near the banks of the river with their emergency lights on. “As part of our border security plan, we keep DPS on the border with boats & planes. They work with local & federal authorities to enforce the law,” Abbott tweeted. The Department of Public Safety declined to comment, saying it does not discuss matters related to operational security. “That said, DPS continues to provide direct support to our local, state and federal partners, including the US Border Patrol, to enhance security along the border and to combat drug and human smuggling into Texas and the nation,” it said in a statement. The US military is also sending 250 active-duty troops to the city, the Pentagon said Wednesday. They will include military police, medical personnel and engineers tasked with putting up razor wire. The migrants are staying in an old warehouse that has been turned into a shelter. About 16 to 20 cases can be processed each day, said Paul Del Rincon, port director for the Eagle Pass Port of Entry. Eagle Pass has about 26,000 residents, according to the US Census.