(Headline USA) Illegal immigrants have been overwhelming the El Paso, Texas, airport ever since the city ended its charter bus program, which transferred thousands of migrants to big cities like New York City every month.
El Paso officials shut down the busing program and closed a migrant welcome center in late October, citing a decrease in migrant arrivals. But the city’s other travel centers are now struggling to keep up with the steady influx as a result.
“Our airport right now is really bad,” El Paso City Council member Claudia Rodriguez told the New York Post. “Some people are sleeping in the airport.”
El Paso International Airport aviation director Sam Rodriguez confirmed that migrants have been camping out in the airport.
“We’ve certainly seen an increase of folks at the airport especially on the overnights here in the last couple of days,” he said. “It’s a matter of the volume [that] continues to come through.”
Many of these migrants aren’t in the airport because they have booked flights, according to City Council Member Peter Svarzbein.
“There were a number of people that seemed to be spread out throughout the sort of lobby area,” Svarzbein said during a city council meeting last week. “I’m concerned … about their safety and the community.”
El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, has come under fire for failing to take the migrant crisis seriously. Despite pressure from his city council, Leeser has refused to declare a state of emergency in the city.
This decision could be the result of pressure from the White House, which reportedly asked Leeser not to declare an emergency due to fear that it would make President Joe Biden look bad.
“He told me the White House asked him not to,” Rodriguez said when asked why Leeser had turned down the city council’s request for an emergency declaration.
Leeser didn’t directly deny the allegation, but said in a statement that he doesn’t “bow to pressure from any side.”
“I make decisions based on current circumstances and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso,” he said.
