El Paso’s leader said that the US border crisis is bigger than America’s federal government can resolve alone
Texas National Guards line up their armored vehicles in the northern bank of the Rio Grande to prevent migrants from approaching the border fence in their attempt to enter into El Paso, Texas from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, December 21, 2022 © AP / Andres Leighton
The mayor of America’s largest southern border city has called for support from other countries and even the United Nations to help resolve the humanitarian crisis brought on by record flows of illegal migrants into the US.
“We need to work together, regardless of parties, because this is a US – United States – problem…,” El Paso, Texas, Mayor Oscar Leeser said on Wednesday in a CNN interview. “It’s not an El Paso problem, it’s a lot bigger than El Paso. I honestly believe it’s bigger than the United States. We need to work with the UN, to work with other countries to be able to come up with a program that becomes humanitarian for everyone.”
El Paso, which sits across the Rio Grande River from Juarez, Mexico, in the southwestern corner of Texas, has become the epicenter of the US border crisis in recent weeks. Thousands of migrants have crossed into the city from Mexico this month. Last week, a caravan of more than 1,000 migrants streamed into El Paso in just one night.
#BREAKING: The El Paso Airport has turned a portion of the facility into a holding center for illegal immigrants. Migrants are sleeping on the floor and throughout the airport. The city declared a state of emergency ahead of Title 42 expiring this week.https://t.co/07G2tcjXCVpic.twitter.com/GzJ1CExdZa
— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) December 19, 2022
Footage posted on social media by journalist Katie Daviscourt purports to show dozens of migrants sleeping on the floor at El Paso’s airport with Red Cross blankets. Leeser, who declared a state of emergency on Saturday, told CNN host Don Lemon that the city also has secured the use of two vacant schools to shelter more migrants.
This morning, service members deployed to El Paso, Texas constructed a triple-strand concertina barrier near the border to secure the area from illegal crossings@36thInfantryDivpic.twitter.com/MpGLS7axYs
— Texas Military Dept. (@TXMilitary) December 20, 2022
El Paso officials are working with the federal government, the Red Cross and other entities to help cope with the crisis, the Democrat mayor said, but “this is strictly a Band-aid on something that needs to be fixed in the very short-term.” He added, “We do know that we do have a broken immigration process, and it needs to be fixed.”
Border crossings by illegal migrants have surged to an all-time high since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, totaling 2.76 million in the government’s last fiscal year, which ended on September 30. Biden’s administration is anticipating an even larger flood when it ends Title 42, a policy imposed by former President Donald Trump that gave the government the power to automatically expel migrants on public health grounds.
The Texas National Guard deployed troops to El Paso earlier this week and put up a razor-wire barrier to block illegal border crossings. Leeser told CNN on Tuesday that the Texas governor’s office assured him that the barrier was part of a three-hour training mission, but the razor wire remained up.
