El Paso mayor declares a state of emergency with border facilities ALREADY at capacity
The mayor El Paso, Texas on Monday declared a 'state of emergency' amid overcrowding from an influx of migrants, amid concerns arrivals will spike further with the end of Title 42 protections.
Those COVID-related restrictions are due to expire May 11 after delays, leading to fears the influx will spike ore in the intervening days.
The border cities of Laradeo and Brownsville also have declared states of emergency.
In El Paso, hundreds of migrants were gathered around a Catholic church downtown and an encampment has formed, with a homeless center already at capacity, the El Paso Times reported. Mayor Oscar Leeser of El Paso issued the state of emergency beginning Monday.
El Palso, Texas declared a week-long state of emergency amid an influx of migrants. Here migrants, mostly from Venezuela, are camped out in front of Sacred Heart Church downtown, days ahead of the end of Title 42
The Biden administration has prepared a plan to try to speed asylum claims amid the pressure.
The state of emergency began Monday and runs for a week. It must be ratified by the city council to extend for a month. The city is scrambling to open temporary shelters.
Former President Donald Trump first implemented Title 42 restrictions citing health concerns early in the pandemic, allowing for more deportations despite asylum claims.
The Biden administration has kept them in place a mid a court fight.
Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) said lifting the authority would 'open the floodgates' to more migration.
'Title 42 provides a tool, and it's going to go away,' Risch told the C'oeur d'A lene Post Falls Press.
'These people now, because of social media and everything else, are fully schooled in what is happening on the border and with border patrol,' he said. 'With Title 42 expiring, they understand this is going to open the floodgates wide,' he said.
Migrants, mostly from Venezuela, are camped out in an alley in El Paso. The end of Title 42 restrictions could bring even more people across the border
The Biden administration said it was opening new processing centers to deal with the crush of migrants
'I have heard in the media that the administration is supposedly working on some solution or answer to keep it down to only 1,000 a day or something like that. There's going to be thousands coming in,' he said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection catalogued record border apprehensions in 2021 and again in 2022.
The Biden administration has announced a plan to open new migration centers that will conduct fast-track screenings of asylum claims in Guatemala and Colombia in an effort to deal with the surge. The administration is also promising a crackdown on smuggling and efforts to speed processing of asylum claims.
'Let me be clear, our border is not open and not will be open after May 11,' Homeland Security Department Secretary Alajandro Mayorkas said Thursday when announcing the plan.
'This is a hemispheric challenge that demands hemispheric solutions,' he said.
Source: Daily Mail
