Migrants continue to flock to Texas border city as leaders enforce no camping rule
EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — Every day hundreds of migrants show up on the streets of El Paso, Texas, putting a strain on local shelters that are already overcapacity.
Outside of Sacred Heart Church in Segundo Barrio, more than 1,000 migrants were camped outside Tuesday. Migrants continued to show up and set up on the streets of El Paso despite Mayor Oscar Leeser stating the city could start its no camping ordinance on Monday.
While help is on the way for documented migrants from the city and county of El Paso, some migrants do not trust officials.
"It's good that they're doing that but they need to do something for us that are undocumented as well," Jefferson Bozo said.
The city and county cannot help undocumented migrants because they will lose their federal funding. Many of the migrants out on the streets of El Paso will have to continue spending their days and nights outside.
Even if the city works to create that shelter capacity at the schools through EPISD, none of that shelter capacity cause its federal funding can be used to house the undocumented," Rep. Veronica Escobar said.
KFOX asked Escobar if any military installations such as Fort Bliss can be used to house migrants.
"I don't believe that DOD [Department of Defense] has approved the use of Fort Bliss or any other military installation," Escobar said. "But you know that's been an ask and it's been in conversations for a long time. We saw the use of Fort Bliss during our support of Afghan refugees, but the world has changed a lot since then specifically what happened in Ukraine and so we don't have the same kind of capacity we once had."
El Paso's Border Patrol Sector Chief Anthony Good said U.S. Customs and Border Protection is working to find a solution to getting migrants off the streets.
"There will be some enforcements jointly with some other agencies to address that because yes there’s a lot people in that area right now so you will see some enforcement in the near future there," Good said.
Migrants that do have the legal basis to be in the U.S. are not too confident in their documents and said they do not trust the federal government.
"Once I see Border Patrol my heart starts to beat and all I can think about is running," Bozo said.
I'm not too sure of the documents I have in hand. I already lived through a situation where authorities deported me despite me showing them my documents," a Venezuelan migrant said.
