Texas homeless shelters overwhelmed as border crisis rages on
Director of a nonprofit shelter in Texas, John Martin joined "Fox & Friends First" to discuss how the border crisis has impacted local shelters amid the migrant influx.
The deputy director of a nonprofit Texas homeless shelter said on "Fox & Friends First" on Wednesday that his facilities and many others in the state are exceeding capacity as a result of the border crisis.
"To give you an example, I have one small shelter out of five that currently has over 110 individuals in it, when it should be closer to 80 at this point … so, it has forced us to actually say no to some of those folks that are in need," said John Martin, deputy director of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in El Paso.
Martin blamed the influx of migrants for the situation, including "unannounced street releases." He said his facilities house migrants who have "presented themselves legally" to authorities at the border and were released.
Migrants from Venezuela, who boarded a bus in Del Rio, Texas, disembark within view of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 2, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Martin described this influx as a "drain" on resources and the community.
"We simply don't know when they're coming or how many there are going to be. And so you just can't anticipate and plan at that point," he told Carley Shimkus, adding that his group tries to help migrants arrange busing to other destinations.
Martin said his shelters were initially receiving "predominantly families," but they're now getting more single adult males and females arriving at his shelters.
Martin said that many of the migrants have experienced "tremendous" journeys over four to six weeks to get to Texas.
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claimed Tuesday that the Biden administration has taken "unprecedented action" at the southern border amid record levels of migrant encounters in the southwestern United States.
There were more than 208,000 migrant encounters at the southern border in August, a slight decline from the 212,000 encounters that took place in July and about 13% lower than the all-time record of 240,000 encounters in May.
There have already been more than 2 million border encounters so far this year, a record high.
Fox News' Paul Best contributed to this report.