Head of Texas migrant shelter where driver killed eight speaks out
Kaelan Deese
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BROWNSVILLE, Texas — The head of a migrant shelter where a driver plowed through 18 people on Sunday opened up about the traumatic collision on Tuesday, saying the incident was something “we’ve never experienced in this town.”
“I don’t think Brownsville itself has had something like this,” Victor Maldonado, executive director of the Bishop Enrique San Pedro Ozanam Center, told the Washington Examiner Tuesday in Brownsville, adding, “We’re a town that mostly is low-key.” Seven people died instantly, while another later succumbed to his wounds.
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George Alvarez, 34, was arrested and charged with eight counts of manslaughter after his SUV plowed through a group of migrants, most of them men from Venezuela, who were gathered outside the shelter near a bus stop. A preliminary toxicology report found Alvarez had cocaine, benzodiazepines, and marijuana in his system at the time of the crash, according to an official briefed on the investigation.
Local authorities are still awaiting more toxicology results before determining a motive or what role the narcotics may have played in the crash. Alvarez had previously been arrested multiple times on charges of burglary, assault, theft, and driving while intoxicated.
Maldonado said local nonprofit groups provided crisis “counselors” to help and support families that witnessed or were affected by the collision. Authorities have yet to release the identities of the eight victims who were killed, and seven victims remained in the hospital as of Tuesday.
The fatal collision came in the same week that the Trump-era immigration policy known as Title 42, which has provided broad authority to quickly expel immigrants on the basis of a pandemic health emergency since 2020, is set to end by midnight on Friday. After 11:59 pm EDT Thursday, Title 8 is expected to kick in and automatically deport most immigrants after they enter the U.S., and those who attempt to cross again may face felony charges.
Both titles of authority permit quick processing, with either a summary expulsion under Title 42 or an expedited removal under Title 8, the difference being that expedited removals create a paper trail that requires screening for asylum claims.
Department of Homeland Security officials under the Biden administration say a return to Title 8 processing will cut back on repeat border crossings by the same individuals. Under Title 42, summary expulsions generated no legal consequences for repeat border crossings.
But Republicans like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott say Title 42’s end will “lead to an incredible amount of people coming across the border illegally.” Immigrants were seen on Tuesday illegally crossing the river from the town of Matamoros, Mexico, and formed long lines on the Brownsville side for processing by Border Patrol, the Washington Examiner observed.
Meanwhile, a broad swath of Republicans and some centrist Democrats have expressed support for a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and Thom Tillis (R-NC) this month, which would extend the administration’s authority to expel asylum-seeking immigrants without hearing their asylum claims.
Brownsville, the easternmost border crossing into Mexico, issued a disaster declaration last month after 15,000 immigrants, mostly from Venezuela, crossed over in a single week and overwhelmed border security.
The Ozanam Center is set up to house up to 250 people at a time but has seen numbers rise above capacity. Maldonado said there were as many as 150 people staying at the shelter as of Tuesday evening but said “we are expecting more” in the coming days.
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“All the different nonprofits in this community are working together to expedite these groups’ stay in Brownsville,” Maldonado said, adding, “many of them don’t want to stay and are using our shelter just to rest so they can go on their way.”
Multiple other Texas border cities have issued disaster declarations as the total number of immigrants in U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s custody is already at record highs and recently exceeded 25,000, straining processing facilities that are already over capacity.