El Paso City Council votes to extend Emergency Ordinance for migrant crisis

ABC 7 KVIA
By Tony Gutierrez
October 10, 2023 11:42 AM
Published October 10, 2023 11:47 AM

UPDATE: El Paso City Council voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to extend two Emergency Ordinances in relation to the migrant crisis experiences by the city.

Mayor Oscar Leeser said said during the discussion that the migrant numbers have dropped by 1000 people per day.

"We're still in a crisis. And even though we may be in a low, we understand that we've got to prepare for the unknown and the unknown seems to come quite often. But right now the numbers have gone down quite a bit,"said Mayor Leeser.

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — With the Borderland seeing an increase of migrants, the El Paso City Council will discuss extending its Emergency Ordinance, which would authorize the City Manager to assign personnel and resources to manage the current migrant crisis.

El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said that despite having processed many migrants in the past weeks, the city is not utilizing any hotels anymore and are now demobilizing the site at Nations Tobin Park.

"So we're actually going to be reducing our sheltering services. We'll still focus on those that need that transportation piece as long as it's needed, but our main priority on a day to day basis is to help those NGOs so that they can be successful and they can house the migrants as they're passing through the community," said D'Agostino.