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The emergency declaration that allows El Paso to protect migrants by taking them off the streets and placing them in non permanent shelters was prolonged for 30 days throughout a particular City Council assembly Friday evening.
While the declaration handed 6-0, metropolis Rep. Alexsandra Annello requested that the merchandise be introduced again to the council for dialogue on Jan. 3 — the day three new metropolis representatives take workplace. City Reps. Cissy Lizarraga and Cassandra Hernandez had been absent.
“I want to support this, I absolutely have no issue,” Annello mentioned. But she expressed concern over state authorities actions for the reason that Dec. 17 catastrophe declaration, significantly National Guard and Department of Public Safety exercise close to the border.
The Friday evening vote by the council was wanted as a result of the state of catastrophe declared by Mayor Oscar Leeser on Dec. 17 was solely good for seven days.
“We were able to get 238 people off the streets last night,” Leeser mentioned.
He was referring to a gaggle of Venezuelan migrants who metropolis officers wouldn’t permit into the city-run shelter on the conference heart as a result of they’d not been processed by the Border Patrol. They had been taken to shelters arrange by the El Paso Catholic Diocese and Annunciation House.
However, despite the 20-degree weather, some migrants didn’t need to depart the streets.
“They do not trust anybody and we cannot force anyone to go to a shelter,” Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino mentioned.
For those that refused to depart, town parked two Brio buses close to the migrant gathering spot exterior Sacred Heart Catholic Church to be used as a warming heart.
For the previous six months, El Paso has been the epicenter of a migrant inflow that doesn’t seem to be letting up and will worsen if Title 42 is lifted subsequent week.
Title 42 is a COVID-19 public well being order initiated by President Trump in 2020 and expanded by President Biden that allowed border brokers to instantly expel many migrants with out a chance to request asylum. The Supreme Court is reviewing a federal decide’s ruling from November that this system should finish.
This article first appeared on El Paso Matters and is republished right here beneath a Creative Commons license.
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