Migrant families in US custody are sleeping on the ground under a bridge in El Paso

EL PASO, Texas - Darkness had fallen, but few in this cramped outdoor detention camp would sleep.

The desert is cold at night, and most of the migrants huddled here had nothing but thin blankets made of insulated plastic to protect them from gusty winds. Rows of families, including parents clutching small children and babies, lay directly on the dirt floor. Some had been living like this, exposed to the elements, for four days.



U.S. immigration officials say this hastily erected holding pen under a bridge in El Paso is an extreme but necessary response to a recent surge of Central American families that have crossed into the U.S. illegally in recent months and asked immigration officials for asylum.

At a news conference in El Paso this week, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol commissioner Kevin McAleenan said an uptick in such arrivals has pushed the overall number of migrants detained at the U.S. border to numbers not seen in more than a decade, with an especially large increase here on the far western edge of Texas. His agency, McAleenan said, had hit a "breaking point" and has run out of space in which to process asylum seekers.

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