EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — The City of El Paso provided an update on the migrant situation on Friday morning, Sept. 15 as the City prepares for another possible influx.
The number of migrants traveling into El Paso is growing, and El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser says it was this time of year in 2022 was when the numbers went up.
Leeser says the city has 400 rooms allocated for these situations. However he says: “But at some point, we will run out of capacity, and we’ll have to activate that emergency declaration. It is in place, but we are not using it at this point.”
Leeser says the federal government has provided funding for the preparations, stating that, “We have hired a hundred city employees that work for whether the zoo or for different areas within the City, and they’re part of our budget and once they’re needed, we take them out of our budget and put them into shelters…”
Leeser says the federal government will then reimburse the City at its current rate.
“So, we’ve been able to bring them over, have the federal government reimburse the City and continue to make sure we do the best job possible,” Leeser said.
This story will be updated as we gather more information.
