City of El Paso seeks clarification from federal gov't about migrant access to shelters

The City of El Paso says it plans to use the vacant Morehead Middle School as a shelter for migrants.
(KFOX14/CBS4)

KFOX14
by Jennifer Cuevas
Tue, May 9th 2023, 9:05 PM CST

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14) — The City of El Paso continues to debate when to open its city-run shelter for migrants with the lifting of Title 42 being two days away.

The city’s Communication Director, Laura Cruz-Acosta, confirmed the city would be opening Bassett and Morehead Middle Schools this week to serve as a migrant shelter but was unable to provide an exact date.

“Once a decision has been made, it really depends on the situation at the site, so we go into it, assess the situation within the property and determine what is needed in order to make it livable," said Cruz-Acosta.

KFOX14 then asked how long it would take to make the schools operational as a shelter, once the city makes the decision.

“Could be days, it could be hours, it really is dependent on a couple of things, I’m not on the property so I don't have that expertise in terms of the knowledge associated with opening up the facility,” said Cruz-Acosta.

The need for more shelters comes after hundreds of undocumented migrants turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents and received an I-862 form, which is the first step for migrants to try and claim asylum.

KFOX14 asked Cruz-Acosta if the migrants who have that form would now be allowed into the city-run shelters.

“We’ve asked the federal government to provide us with a little bit more detail because we don’t know what that form will allow or not allow and that’s a question that we’re asking the federal government," Cruz-Acosta said.

Meanwhile, migrants who turned themselves in to Border Patrol agents were taken to the El Paso County Migrant Support Services Center.

While the center says it does not do a daily count, they said they’ve processed 2,867 migrants from April 23 to May 6, the majority being from Venezuela.