En route to escape violence, hundreds of African migrants cross San Antonio

"The introduction of this new population imposes an additional burden on treatment stations due to linguistic and cultural differences," said Del Rio's chief patrol officer, Raul L. Ortiz. "Our agents continue to meet each new challenge as the current humanitarian crisis evolves."

CBP has already arrested over 33,000 people in the Del Rio area in 2019, double the arrests of the previous fiscal year. More than 80% of those arrested come from 38 countries other than Mexico.

Peter Stranges is Vice President of Programs for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of San Antonio. He said that many Congolese migrants have asked to go to Portland, Maine. There is a large Congolese community there and many want to go to a shelter in the city, he said. But the hideaway they mentioned did not have any extra beds. Instead, the volunteers managed to find other shelters with space and people who knew asylum seekers to accommodate them, he said.

"We just make sure that the person on the other end of the line can take care of it as soon as they arrive," said Stranges. "The last thing we want is that they go to a city after a bus trip of two or three days and find themselves homeless."

Stranges said he hoped to see about 300 Congolese migrants released a week from the border to San Antonio.

"What we hear now is that a handful of Congolese families are waiting at the border to cross the port of entry. But it was so slow that they decided to cross the river and turn into border patrol boats, "Stranges said. "They come to the border patrol and ask for asylum.

"We do not know when it will change," he added. "Much of this is speculative at this point."

For now, the flow seems to be stopped. The city on Monday closed its overflow shelter at San Fernando Gym after getting travel plans and tickets for the latest African migrants from the original group. The remaining migrants were relocated to the Travis Park Church, which regularly hosts asylum seekers overnight. Colleen Bridger, Acting Deputy City Manager, said the city was ready to welcome any new influx of African migrants.

Bridger also assured that it was impossible for these asylum seekers, who have been traveling for months, to carry the Ebola virus. She held a press conference on Tuesday after representatives of a conspiracy website entered the Migrant Resource Center with cameras asking questions about Ebola. After the volunteers accompanied them, Bridger said that she had given an interview to the camera, doing her best to answer their questions. The incubation period of the disease is 21 days and no infected person would have survived the trip, she said.

"These people have been going through Central America for six months," said Bridger. "There is absolutely no risk that any of them will be afflicted with Ebola."

Asylum seekers are monitored at each border control point they cross, including at the US-Mexico border. It is more likely that someone from New York brings measles to San Antonio than a migrant from Mexico, Bridger said.

"They have undergone more health screenings in the last six months than most of us in our lifetime," Bridger said at Tuesday's press conference.

Bonnie Arbittier / Rivard Report

(From left to right) Rolly Iyualeke, 33, and Nathan Pami, 26.

Although the group of African migrants may not have known each other before meeting in Mexico, they became a community when they visited the United States, said Iyualeke. He beckoned to Nathan Pami, a 26-year-old asylum seeker he met in Mexico. Both men are from Congo and speak French. With hundreds of other migrants from Congo, Republic of Congo, and Angola, they became a community while traveling to the United States, he said. They call each other my brother – my brother.

"We all speak the same language, but we do not know each other," Iyualeke said. "We traveled from different countries – Panama, Costa Rica – but we had the same destination. Our connection mainly concerned our language. We understood each other. The destination was the same. It connected us. "

The inhabitants of Congo and the Republic of Congo speak French, while Angolans speak Portuguese. Volunteers speaking both languages ​​were sent to the city's migrant documentation center last week to help asylum seekers.

Iyualeke said that he had completed six of the required seven years of medical school in Congo before leaving the country. He hopes to learn English and go back to school, he said.

"We need help," Iyualeke said. "We left our country because there were a lot of problems. We need work. And we respect the country in which we are. "

The Archdiocese of San Antonio, a Catholic charity, manages donations to help asylum seekers in San Antonio. Donate online here or call Christina Higgs at 210-222-1294.

Photographer Bonnie Arbittier contributed to this article.