EL PASO — The death this week of a second Guatemalan child in United States custody and the unusual release of hundreds of asylum seekers in downtown El Paso have put officials in this border city on edge.

Shelters, they said, are already overwhelmed in their ability to take in the migrants.

The release of dozens of families in a city park on Christmas Day stands in sharp contrast to the past, when immigration officials coordinated such moves with a network of shelters that have been assisting refugees for decades.

Along with the deaths of two detained migrant children in the last three weeks, the abrupt release has a web of organizations assisting migrants on both sides of the border concerned that more people could fall ill.

The leaders of organizations assisting immigrants are questioning why federal officials released the asylum seekers at a time when President Trump was criticizing Democrats over their resistance to funding a border wall. Some immigration advocates argued that the administration’s policies are effectively making thousands of Central American asylum seekers pawns in the standoff in Washington.