Due to the overwhelming number of border crossings, authorities in El Paso, Texas, have declared a state of emergency.
At a news conference on Saturday, Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency, stating that he was unable to continue to keep the populace safe.
Leeser stated, “I said from the beginning that I would call it when I felt that either our asylum seekers or community were not safe.”
El Paso, a city near the border between the United States and Mexico, continues to experience an influx of migrants. When Title 42, a Trump-era immigration restriction that limited the number of asylum seekers the US would accept in the event of a COVID epidemic, expires on December 21, it is also anticipated that a spike of migrants will occur.
“That’s not the way we want to treat people and by calling a state of an emergency it gives us the ability today to be able to do what we couldn’t do until we called it.”
Leeser is asking the state for more funding and assistance by announcing an emergency.
In addition to requesting for resources to transfer the migrants to other cities and more law enforcement officers to help assure both the safety of locals and the migrants, the proposal also includes staffing support for housing and feeding migrants.
Judge Ricardo Samaniego of El Paso County and Leeser both stated recently that they did not see the need to declare a state of emergency.
Additionally, the officials did not want to provide Gov. Greg Abbott access to city facilities, despite his later assurances that he would only act after consulting with the mayor’s office.
The Title 42 regulations have been allowed to expire by the courts because President Biden decided not to renew them. Texas is one of 19 Republican states that have filed lawsuits to keep the regulations in place.
The declaration will be up for approval by the municipal council and will be in force for seven days.
