The border city of El Paso, Texas, is considering plans to declare a state of emergency over the growing border crisis, according to a Wednesday press release from city officials.
Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino shared the concern that the city council expects to vote on next week.
“We are extremely grateful to all our partners including the NGOs, the County, State and Federal leaders who understand the extraordinary collaborative lift that is required,” D’Agostino said in the statement.
The move is the latest in a series of events in the city concerning the growing number of illegal immigrants entering the community. Nearly 100 migrants were released into El Paso’s downtown last week as shelters and federal facilities reached capacity.
“The migrants were released before dawn, and some quickly made plans to travel on to other cities, while others lingered on the streets of El Paso or at the airport — too broke to leave or book a hotel,” the New York Post reported.
The report also comes ahead of the planned end of Title 42 next week. The rollback of the Trump-era border health policy could further increase the number of migrants crossing into the city.
A union leader representing U.S. Border Patrol agents is warning that ending Title 42 on Monday will give drug cartels full control of the southern border, The Daily Wire reported.
National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd expressed his concerns on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” on Wednesday.
“That we just don’t have anybody in the field, that we just can’t patrol the border. When you look right now, we already start our shifts with 50% of our resources not even performing enforcement activities. They’re in administrative duties,” Judd said.
In March, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced that it would be scrapping the Title 42 policy on May 23 after determining that the rule is “no longer necessary.”
The plan to consider a state of emergency also follows a record month of migrant crossings along the southern border in April. The April number included 12,221 unaccompanied children.
“In April, the average number of unaccompanied children in CBP custody was 478 per day, compared with an average of 582 per day in March,” according to the CBP.
CBP Nationwide Total Encounters for the current fiscal year to date through April are already at 1,478,977.
The April numbers follow a March report that nearly 210,000 illegal immigrants were encountered during the month, the largest number for any one month during the Biden presidency.
At least 10 Democratic lawmakers have also joined Republicans in opposition to the end of Title 42 in May. Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly told Fox News “it’s going to be a crisis on top of a crisis.”