End of Title 42 will challenge community ‘for months’
Escobar: DHS, FEMA and El Paso County officials talking about options to cope with expected post-May 11 surge
Venezuelan migrant Karla Sainz, 26, who’s eight months pregnant, help her son Joshua, 2, to get dressed while camping outside the Sacred Heart Church in downtown El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. President Joe Biden arrived in Texas on Sunday for his first trip to the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office, stopping in El Paso after two years of hounding by Republicans who have hammered him as soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing spirals. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
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EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – El Paso has seen migrant surges before, but there’s no precedent for what local and federal officials expect will happen when Title 42 migrant expulsions end on May 11.
“Obviously, May 11 is going to be a very challenging day and the weeks and months that follow will be incredibly challenging for our community,” U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas, said on Thursday.
Title 42 is a public health rule that has allowed border agents to swiftly expel unauthorized migrants coming into the United States since 2020. Nearly 420,000 migrants have been expelled since October on Title 42 grounds along the Southwest border. In El Paso, 26,401 were sent back across the border just in March.
In three weeks, newcomers will be subject to Title 8 processing with most being absorbed into processing centers that as of Thursday held a record 5,389 migrants in custody, according to the City of El Paso’s migrant dashboard website.
In a Zoom briefing with reporters, Escobar said she is talking with the Department of Homeland Security about “creative ideas” on how best to handle what’s coming. She spoke to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday on funding.
She said she’s also reached out to House Republicans so local communities can have the money they need to cope with the expected migrant surge.
Last year, El Paso spent more than $10.3 million in federally reimbursable resources on migrant care that included food, transportation and busing out of town for migrants released from federal immigration custody. With a GOP majority in the House, their cooperation on funding issues is key.
“We need them to support us with that money and changes in the law to have a border that is not as broken as we have seen,” Escobar said.
