Texas Town Spends Over $45 Million Supporting Migrants

Migrants in El PasoPhoto byX (Twitter)

Migrants are crossing the border in Texas though the media hasn’t paid as much attention this year as it did last year. A border city in Texas is taking abandoned schools and renting a hotel to house migrants.

The normal shelters are nearly full so the City has resorted to other options. According to CBS 4, the Annunciation House has asked for volunteers to help it deal with migrants which they estimate seeing about 400 to 500 a day. 

The shelter has asked for:

• short-term volunteers
• year-long commitment
• summer volunteer internships
• community volunteers

This has forced the City of El Paso to look for other means to support migrants who have crossed the border. 

The City has spent over $45 million to support migrant operations and most has been reimbursed by the federal government. According to The El Paso Times, about $1.3 million is still waiting to be repaid.  

According to El Paso Times, Deputy City Manager Mario D'Agostino said:  

"We know we're going to be heavy into the hotel operations and until we can get that facility ... we're going to be in these kinds of (difficult) moments."

With migrants in El Paso, the crisis may be just as bad as it was last December when Mayor Oscar Lesser first called for a State of Emergency as Title 42 was supposed to end that month. The U.S. Supreme Court delayed ending it to give the Biden administration time to prepare. 

 City Representative Joe Molinar added:

"Some people in District 4, my constituents, are very nervous when they go out at night ... because they are approached by these people. Some of them are afraid, they're really afraid of going out at night, themselves or with their families."

According to Fox 44, the Texas National Guard was needed on September 13 to turn back about 200 Venezuelan migrants who tried to cross the border based on a bad rumor.  

The El Paso County Judge, Richard Samaniego expects more migrants coming in future months.

Do you think the migrant situation has gotten worse?