Officials in El Paso, Texas are searching for solutions to prevent the historic influx of illegal immigrants from collapsing its infrastructure.
With the failures of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and a lack of federal funding, officials have had to think outside the box and consider any possible resource to alleviate the strain the immigrants have placed on the community.
Officials have asked the Biden administration to allow the use of military bases to house the immigrants since funding is limited and accommodating the volume of immigrants is arguably impossible with the current resources.
On Dec. 21, Title 42 will be lifted and both state and federal officials have confirmed that its expiration will place an even heavier burden on the border cities with some saying to expect chaos.
El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino stated that as of Dec. 5, the city has spent $9.52 million supporting the federal migrant crisis. It has received $2.24 million from FEMA and it continues to work on the reimbursement of the additional $7.28 million from the federal government.
Proper funding is needed to activate the city’s Migrant Welcome Center which provides a variety of services such as shelter, meals, support services and transportation to desired destination cities.
D’Agostino believes using the military bases would help fill in the gaps — at least partially — while they assess the impact of Title 42’s expiration.
In an interview with The Daily Caller, D’Agostino stated:
“What we have been saying to all of our federal partners is that this Title 42 going away, with the numbers we’re seeing today is a true emergency for the community. It’s a federal crisis that’s happening on the border of El Paso. With that, they’re gonna need to do some federal operation, maybe like what we saw with the Afghans.”
His suggestion was in reference to how the U.S. handled Afghan refugees after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan last year.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is reporting 2,500 illegal crossings each day into El Paso. The surge has made it impossible to support the immigrants, forcing many to sleep on the streets.
BREAKING: An enormous mass of hundreds of migrants have just crossed illegally into El Paso, TX.
There is now a massive line of migrants waiting to be taken into custody by Border Patrol, and more are coming.
El Paso sector had over 2,600 crossings in 24 hrs Fri-Sat. @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/0AaQRQXVNN— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) December 12, 2022
