El Paso to issue migrant state of emergency before Title 42 sunset

The city of El Paso on Monday said it plans to issue a full migrant state of emergency in preparation for the end of the pandemic-era immigration policy Title 42 on May 11, the city’s mayor said. 

“I’ve been talking to (City Attorney Karla) Neiman and Chief (Mario) D’Agostino on the proper time and we will do it prior to May 11 – to declare a state of emergency the main reason being we want to make sure we have the schools prepared and ready to go, the Civic Center ready to go,” Mayor Oscar Leeser said on Monday. “This will be strictly for temporary housing.”

City officials are preparing for a large number of migrants to be released on parole after the Title 42 policy expires next month. Under Title 42, border officials can expel asylum seekers at the border on public health grounds to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. After May 11, however, asylum seekers will not be deported back to their home countries. 

“Whatever they are doing now is going to end. We anticipate a large number of people coming through as a result of those (public health) orders” ending, Neiman said.

The Department of Homeland Security is expecting between 13,000 and 18,000 migrants a day—around 400,000 per month—once the policy ends in May, along with the national COVID-19 public health emergency.

“We are going to see, based on all the information we have received, something we haven’t seen in El Paso, whether in 2019 or December (of last year). It’s going to really take a lot of work from our teams to be prepared and I know we’ve been working on it and we will be prepared,” the mayor said.

Also on Monday, the El Paso City Council voted to extend an emergency ordinance that allows municipal employees to assist nonprofits that are caring for the migrants who are released from federal custody.