EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — City leaders addressed the border crisis, one day after Title 42 expired..
Mayor Oscar Leeser spoke in a news conference on Friday, May 12, about what is being done to handle the surge of migrants that has been seen.
Leeser said the city saw 1,800 migrants come into EL Paso on May 11.
Leeser also said Border Patrol is working with migrants to fill out paperwork to help them through the legal process of immigration as they seek asylum.
“…They have to, you know have their court date set up prior to being released by Customs and Border Protection. So that’s going to slow them down a little bit, but we are prepared and ready to assist them as they decompress their system. We’ll continue to help them.” Leeser, said.
Leeser said the shelters they set in place have opened. One of them is at Bassett Middle School in Central El Paso.
“…One of them right now is in operation and we have about 150 asylum seekers that have been put in there. They are families only and single males and single females have gone to hotels,” Leeser said.
Leeser also said that the city and law enforcement are working to not have any street releases.
“We have plenty of funding at this point in time to continue forward and that’s not really our primary concern at this time. We’re just trying to be as judicious as we can to make sure we have those funding to last us into the coming weeks of operation.” Mario D’Agostino, deputy city manager said.
Leeser added that they are committed to making sure they spend every penny wisely.
“We know (the immigration process) needs to be fixed and we know there’s not a short term answer right now.” Leeser said.
