For the past two months, a network of Hispanic churches in the Phoenix area has been providing temporary shelter to Central American migrant families released by ICE.

PHOENIX — Federal immigration authorities have released about 2,500 Central American families at Hispanic churches in the Phoenix area over the past two months, totaling more than 5,000 people, according to one pastor.

The families had recently crossed the border illegally in southwestern Arizona, which has become one of the most popular entry points for a growing wave of migrant families arriving at the Southern border seeking refuge in the United States.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say the agency lacks the capacity to hold the growing wave of migrant families crossing the border daily in southwestern Arizona, which is why they have begun releasing them to local churches in Phoenix and to non-profit groups in the Tucson and, for a while, in Yuma.

The families being released by ICE have relatives in the United States and are headed to rejoin them in other parts of the country, said Magdalena Schwartz, a pastor in Mesa who has been helping coordinate with ICE the release of families to local churches.

The churches provide temporary shelter to migrant families until they can make their own travel arrangements, usually by bus.

The families typically stay at the churches or in congregants' homes no more than a day or two, she said.

But with no end in sight to the release of migrant families by ICE, the churches are becoming overwhelmed, Schwartz said. Most of the churches are made up of working immigrant families with limited resources, she said.

"Yes, it's overwhelming because we don't have the resources," Schwartz said. "We don't have the financial resources to be doing this. ... The government doesn't give us money for this. Just the people's hearts."

On Tuesday, immigration authorities dropped off about 60 families at a Greyhound bus station in Phoenix, instead of at local churches as they had been.

The release of so many families at the bus station attracted renewed media attention to the release of migrant families. But it has been going on quietly for weeks, said Schwartz.

Under a legal settlement known as the Flores agreement, immigration authorities cannot hold families in detention centers for more than 20 days.

But since the large-scale release of families began here in October, ICE officials have refused to provide data on the number of migrant families released.

Schwartz estimated ICE has released about 2,500 families to local churches since mid-October, totaling about 5,000 men, women and children.

ICE spokeswoman Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe declined to verify the numbers provided by Schwartz.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials began releasing large groups of migrant families at local churches before the large caravan of more than 5,000 Central Americans arrived in Tijuana in November.

The migrant caravan has drawn international attention and prompted President Donald Trump to deploy thousands of active-duty military soldiers to help secure the U.S.-Mexico border.

The arrival of migrant families arriving at the border has not drawn similar national attention.

In fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30, the Border Patrol apprehended more than 107,000 migrants arriving as families. That was a 42 percent increase from the year before, U.S. Customs and Border Protection statistics show.

Migrant families made up about 25 percent of the total 396,579 Border Patrol apprehensions in the last fiscal year.

Despite the spike in migrant families arriving at the southern border, mostly from impoverished and violence-racked countries in Central America, Border Patrol apprehensions remain at the lowest levels in four decades.

About 10 churches in the Phoenix area, most of them with Hispanic congregations and Spanish-speaking pastors, have been providing temporary shelter to migrant families since Oct. 13, Schwartz said.

She said the churches who are aiding migrant families released by ICE are not trying to encourage people to come to the United States illegally.

But as Christians, they feel compelled to provide humanitarian assistance once they have been released, she said.

"If every pastor preaches the gospel of Jesus, we have to follow what Jesus preached," she said. "If Jesus was here in this situation, in this humanitarian crisis, what would he do?"

'Welcome. God bless you'

On Friday, ICE resumed dropping off migrant families at churches.

Two Department of Homeland Security buses and two vans pulled into the parking lot of Casa de Oracion No. 2, a small Hispanic church in north Phoenix, about 10 a.m.

The pastor, Ramon Madrid, and about a dozen members of his congregation, were waiting for them. They huddled in prayer before the doors of the buses opened, then rushed over to greet the families as they climbed off, taking their first steps in the United States in freedom.

"Welcome. God bless you," Madrid said in Spanish, shaking the hand of each parent who got off the bus, each accompanied by a child ranging in age from a few months old to teenagers.

They carried papers given to them by ICE that instructed them to report to immigration offices once they reach their final destination in the United States.

Many also wore ICE-issued electronic GPS monitoring devices on their ankles.

The migrants filed into a large room, where church congregants served them bowls of bean soup and warm tortillas wrapped in aluminum foil.

The migrant families were then invited to walk outside and help themselves to clothing and shoes piled on tables.

The vast majority of the migrant families dropped off at the church on Friday came from Guatemala, based on a show of hands. The remainder came from Honduras, El Salvador and Mexico.

One mother with a 5-year-old boy said she was from Venezuela.

Madrid said ICE has been dropping off large groups of migrant families at his church at least once a week and sometimes several times a week since mid-October. The largest group was 70 families, more than 160 people.

The congregation has been collecting clothing and shoes to hand out to the migrant families and donating money to buy food and bottled water.

Madrid said it has been difficult for the church to keep up with the constant arrival of more families. Several times the church has run out of food.

"But every time we run out, God provides more," he said. "It happened last week. We didn't have any more stuff and Pastor Magdalena called me and said, 'We have more people. It's an emergency.' I said, 'Go ahead and send them.'

"The next day, we had a lot of donations come into the church and provided everything I needed."