El Paso may start busing migrants again, but NYC and Chicago say they can’t handle them
As leaders in New York and Chicago say they are overwhelmed with migrants arriving in their cities, stretching their shelters and servi🌃ces to the limit, El Paso, Texas, is warning it will soon have to start busing people out.
The announcement was made as El Paso declared a state of emergency Sunday as it prepares for a huge influx over the border following the end of Title 42 on May 11.
The city — the busiest crossing point on the southern border — previously sent 10,713 migrants to the Big Apple and 3,259 to Chi💃cago last fall, .
“The possibility of doing those transports again that we saw in September, October is very much a reality,” Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said Sunday.
Officials expect anywhere from 12,000 to 40,000 migrants who have b🍰een waiting on the Mexi🤪can side to cross into the city after the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that has allowed the US to return 🍰asylum seekers from certain countries to Mexi⭕co without hearing their asylum claims.
“[Sending the buses] is our last move, because we’d rather successfully help [migrants] get on their way on their own … but that is an option,” D’Agostino added of the transportation plans.
D’Agostino also noted the city has been awarded $15 million as an advance from the federal government to help it deal with the migrant crisis, some of which could be used to bus people out of the city — where shelters are once again full.
El Paso’s published city statistics for Sunday showed 1,400 people attempting to cross the border into the US and 4,220 people in Customs and Border Protection custody, although most of them would be processed and ejected back to Mexico.
Last August, El Paso sent its first busloads of migrants from the border to New York with Mayor Eric Adams’ blessing.
The city has since been overwhelmed as more and more migrants, almost all from Central and South ꧋America, continued to arrive, with over 1,300 in a three-day period last week.
Adams has since complained about the Federal Emergency Management Agency giving money to cities that they use to bus migrants to New York.
What is Title 42 and what does its end mean for US border immigration?
What is Title 42?
Title 42 is a federal health measure enforced by the US Border Patr﷽ol. It allows the agency to kick certain migrants out of the US and return🎀 them to Mexico. This includes asylum seekers, who under international law have the legal right to make an asylum claim in America.
Cu💖rrently, migrants who cross the border illega🔯lly and who are from Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua or Venezuela are subject to Title 42 and could be sent to Mexico.
How did Title 42 start?
President Donald Trump invoked the law in 2020 at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, asking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue the policy. The Trump administration made the case that keeping mi♐grants out of the country would s༒low down the spread of infections and maintain the safety of federal agents encountering migrants.
What has happened with Title 42 under Biden?
When President Biden took over, he continued to enforce Title 42 with one important change from his predec🍌essor. Biden said Border Patrol agents were only allowed to expel migrants from certain countries under his direction. That meant migrants seeking asylum from countries like Cuba and Venezuela could still seek asylum if they arrived at the border and stay in the US while their cases were decided in court — unless they had a criminal record.
What is happening with Title 42 now?
Title 42 is supposed to be a health policy, not an immigration law. It will end at ✤11:59 p.m. May 11, when the Biden ad♎ministration ends all COVID-19-related policies.
Why is it controversial?
Many have called for the policy’s end, saying it’s illegal and that internatio𓆏nal law guarantees people the right to seek asylum.
Others, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, warn that the southern border could see up to 13,000 migrants per day crossing with the intentionﷺ to stay in the country when the measure ends.
What would the end of Title 42 mean for immigration into the US?
It’s unclear exactly how many people have been expelled u🅠nder Title 42 because there have been scores of people who have attempted to enter the country numerous times and been rejected again and again, but the US Border Patrol said it made an at the border in the last fiscal year. Forty percent of people who were expelled from the country were ejected under the rules of Title 42.
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has also said her city is feeling the strain, : “We are completely tapped out. We have no more space, no more resources … We’ve been seeing over the last week, two to three weeks, 200-plus people coming to Chicago every single day.”
By Ocꦆtober 2022, El Paso had sent 13,972 mostly Venezuelan migrants out of the city when it stopped its busing program.
The move h♔ad initially been made to keep the local shelter system from collapsing or having migrants sleeping on the streets — something elected officials are again꧑ facing.
“We’re getting prepared now for what we call the unknown, and the unknown is what will happen after May 11,” Mayor Oscar Leeser has previously stated.
“It’s going to be very important for us that we do not have people sleeping on the streets.”
However, by Sunday, city blocks were l♏ined with migrants sleeping on the st🍸reets near a downtown church, Sacred Heart, according to the .
El Paso’s leadership hopes to move migrants out of town to make space for future waves of asylum seekers, many of whom are just entering the country for the first time but who ultimately hope to travel much farther into the interior of the US.
“Our transportation system is limited … there’s only so many seats available out of town to get to their destinations they want to go, and so that fills up quickly,” D’Agostino added. “That causes a backlog within the shelter system.”
“Sheltering space is limited. As you know, we couldn’t build enough space to shelter everyone.”
Temporary 🎐shelters were opened for migrants who are in the US legally and who are waiting for a bus or plane ride to another destination and have money to pay for their own tickets.
The cityဣ acknowledged some asylum seekers would not have their own funds to leave the desert city and 🦩would be dependent on help to leave.
New Yꦿork City was not rule𓆉d out as a destination when The Post inquired Monday.
“The last time the city provided transportation, we asked the migrants where they wanted to go,” city spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta told The Post. “If we are to provide transportation again, we will once again poll the migrants so it will really be dependent on what location the migrants wish to go.”
New York and Chicago continue to be😼 top destinations requested by migrants ✨after they leave the border, according to nonprofit Catholic Charities, which is partnering with El Paso County to move ☂migrants.
