The city of El Paso stopped short of issuing a state of emergency Thursday, amid a massive influx of migrants crossing the border. But city leaders expressed concern over the upcoming expiration of…
At present, roughly 2,500 people cross into the US through El Paso every day, city leaders said. That number is predicted to reach 5,000 a day when the policy allowing instant expulsion of most migrants goes away on Dec.
21. “That’s 150,000 coming through in a single month, and that’s where the federal government and the state will need to help us,” Mayor Oscar Leeser told reporters. “There is not enough funding and there’s not enough shelters you can build to just handle it all here,” Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino agreed. In addition to the $6 million for future migrant operations, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will reimburse the city $3.8 million in expenses incurred between July 1 and Sept. 30 of this year out of a requested $5.1 million.D’Agostino said the city has spent just over $9.5 million on migrant services so far this year, but despite the strain on resources, Leeser has avoided an emergency declaration — with“Declaring a state of emergency would not have changed additional funding, and would not have changed where we’re at today,” Leeser insisted Thursday. “If I feel the community is not safe, if I feel the visitors into our country are not safe, then that’s when you need to declare it,” the mayor added. “And at this point — you see it, we all see it — our community is very safe. And our visitors into our country are continuing to be safe and we continue to provide a service.”GABY VELASQUEZ/ EL PASO TIMES /Omar Ornelas/El Paso Times / USAthat Leeser, a Democrat, had privately admitted to her he was steering clear of making the declaration because the Biden administration had asked him to. Leeser denied the accusation in a statement at the time, saying he doesn’t “bow to pressure from any side.” But the mayor acknowledged external pressure at a September City Council meeting, saying Congresswoman Veronica Escobar had urged him not to declare a state of emergency, and adding: “The White House has asked, at this point, for us not to do that and they’ll continue to work with us and continue to give us … money through [the] Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
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