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(Trends Wide) — Some 2,300 migrants are living on the streets around two shelters near downtown El Paso, city officials announced during a news conference Thursday.
Officials explained that the migrant population on the streets of El Paso includes a mix of undocumented migrants and migrants who have been processed by Border Patrol.
City officials estimate that about 1,800 migrants live on the streets around Sacred Heart Church and as many as 500 outside the Homeless Opportunity Center. That’s in addition to the roughly 330 migrants staying inside shelters, authorities say.
Despite thousands of migrants on the streets, city officials indicate they plan to wait until the early part of next week to open city-run shelters.
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser estimates that up to 15,000 migrants are in or heading to Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, awaiting the lifting of Title 42. He says the estimate includes about 3,500 migrants who they are in a caravan that is expected to arrive in northern Mexico soon.
Title 42, a pandemic-time measure that allows immigration agents to quickly return migrants to Mexico, is scheduled to end May 11.
Leeser says his teams are preparing to transport migrants to destinations outside of El Paso when deemed necessary. The transportation effort has not started and the start date will depend on the migrant population that arrives, according to authorities.
Reporters asked Leeser to comment on calls for no more transportation of immigrants from the border to the Northeast and Midwest by Mayors Lori Lightfoot in Chicago and Mayor Eric Adams in New York. Leeser said migrants are not put on buses against their will and that the city has working relationships with other cities across the country, including Mayor Adams.
Leeser made it clear that El Paso’s transportation effort differs from the effort spearheaded by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has sent immigrants places and dropped them off without warning.
“Do we support bus transportation to where [los inmigrantes] don’t they ask for a ride? Absolutely not. Do we support transporting people to Martha’s Vineyard or to the White House or to the Vice President’s front yard? Absolutely not. We would never support something like that,” said Leeser, who commented that she has been in daily conversations with the White House about the situation in El Paso.
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