The tents that were set up to create additional space to handle the influx of immigrants processed by U.S. Border Patrol will be shut down by the end of the month.

CHANNEL 5 NEWS received confirmation Tuesday from an agency spokesperson. In a statement, they confirmed, “CBP plans to begin demobilization soft-sided facilities in Yuma, El Paso and Rio Grande Valley Sectors and associated wrap around services by the end of May.”

Soft-side facilities, or tent-like structures, were set up in Donna and at several border patrol stations in May 2019. It was a response to a surge in people crossing the border seeking asylum.

In 2019, the number of people apprehended by Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley Sector had more than doubled from the previous year. In 2018, the sector reported detaining 162,262. The following year, 339,135 people tried crossing into the U.S. through the southern border in the Valley.

Agency guidelines required the processing time of immigrants not to exceed 72 hours, but it often surpassed during that period. A survey confirmed that.

Capacity issues were another side effect of the influx. It led to lawsuits. Advocates were concerned about the detrimental effects on immigrants, adults and children, who were held in U.S. Border Patrol processing facilities out of compliance with federal regulations.

In May 2019, the federal government drew up a contract to create additional space along the southern border. It cost more than $36 million to construct a facility in Donna and El Paso. It was initially scheduled to run for four months, but they had the ability to extend on a month-to-month basis, according to Border Patrol Executive Officer of Law Enforcement Programs Carmen Qualia.

A year later, the agency is facing a decrease in apprehensions. From October through April 2020, RGV Sector Border Patrol agents apprehended 49,596. In the same span of time last year, they had detained 173,409, according to agency statistics.

The coronavirus further reduced those numbers. A CDC issued policy requires migrants coming into the country from Mexico or Canada be turned back as a measure to reduce further spread of COVID-19.

From the start of the year through March, RGV Border Patrol agents were apprehending from 9,000 to 7,000 people a month. The numbers fell considerably after the policy was implemented. By April, they detained less than half of their lowest amount, about 3,264.

The CDC order was set to expire in late May but was expanded Tuesday. The CDC director will now decide when to lift that policy based on when the risk to public safety subsides. The decision will be reviewed every 30 days.

Apprehension numbers could rise again, but policies like the Migrant Protection Protocol, Prompt Asylum Claim Review, or PACR, and the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process, also known as HARP, could continue expediting the processing of migrants along the border after the policy expires. 

The full statement from a U.S. Border Patrol spokesperson confirming the deconstruction of the temporary facilities across the Southwest Border reads:

"CBP plans to begin demobilization soft-sided facilities in Yuma, El Paso and Rio Grande Valley Sectors and associated wrap around services by the end of May. Demobilization of the Yuma facility began in mid-May and the remaining facilities will begin demobilization by the end of the month. Border Patrol has continuously monitored trends in both the volume and demographics of southwest border apprehensions in recent months to assess the need for continued operation of soft-sided facilities. Under COVID-19 policies, in April the number of individuals in Border Patrol custody along the southwest border each day further declined to around 100. Therefore, CBP has determined that the additional temporary capacity provided by the soft-sided facilities is not necessary for current operations."