The Biden White House reportedly directed the Democrat mayor of El Paso, Texas, to not declare a state of emergency over the massive influx of illegal immigrants overwhelming the city due to concerns it would make Democrats look bad ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
According to the New York Post, at least three of the El Paso City Council’s eight members have asked Mayor Oscar Leeser to issue an emergency declaration in response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the thousands of migrants who have filled city’s shelters and hotels, but he has thus far resisted taking that step. Hundreds of migrants have reportedly been sleeping on the streets without access to toilets or showers, and residents have complained that the “smell of human waste is overwhelming in the area.”
Migrants sleeping in downtown El Paso after being released due to over crowding. Many of them waiting for transportation out of El Paso. pic.twitter.com/PxmpFSxXbd
— Shelby Kapp (@KappKtsm) September 14, 2022
“We’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a scene that you would see in a third-world country, not in the streets of El Paso,” said Rep. Tony Gonzalez (R-Texas), in a tweet last month.
Mayor Leeser admitted during a phone conversation in September that the Biden White House had urged him not to declare a state of emergency, Councilmember Claudia Rodriguez told the Post.
“He told me the White House asked him not to,” Rodriguez said, adding that Leeser had repeatedly assured her that he’d declare a state of emergency “if things got worse.” That could happen soon, as thousands of Venezuelans are currently headed to El Paso, according to Gonzales.
Thousands of Venezuelans are headed to El Paso, Texas. The worst is yet to come. #TX23 pic.twitter.com/MG0bBipEzC
— Team Tony (@TonyGonzales4TX) October 18, 2022
The surge of Venezuelans has come as a result of the Biden regime officially extending special protections for Venezuelan migrants, known as Temporary Protected Status, that shield some of them from deportation.
Gonzales said he has also heard from city officials that the Biden regime has pressured the mayor to keep the city’s humanitarian crisis on the down-low.
“It is a sleight of hand what the administration is doing—pressuring the local government to not issue a declaration of emergency, to say as if everything is going OK,” he said.
The congressman told the Post that the White House has done “the same thing in other parts of my district,” which have also seen a huge influx of migrants seeking refuge.
Leeser refused to speak to the Post, but said in a prepared statement: “I don’t bow to pressure from any side.”
He added, “I make decisions based on current circumstances and in the best interest of the citizens of El Paso.” The statement also praised the federal government for providing his city with “critical” assistance.
But during Sept. 27 City Council meeting, Leeser admitted: “The White House has asked, at this point, for us not to do that [declare an emergency] and they’ll continue to work with us and continue to give us … money through [the] Federal Emergency Management Agency.”
Figures posted on El Paso’s official website show the city has received only $2 million in federal reimbursements toward the $8 million it has spent dealing with the migrant crisis.
The total cost could end up being much more, with ElPasomatters.org reporting in September the city was spending as much as $300,000 a day to shelter, feed and transport asylum-seeking immigrants.
Between April and mid-September more than 62,000 migrants had reportedly crossed the border into El Paso.
While the Republican governors of Texas and Florida have triggered outrage among Democrats for busing illegal immigrants to liberal sanctuary cities, Democrats officials in El Paso have been quietly doing the same thing, but with no pushback, Fox News reporter Bill Melugin reported last month.
El Paso “just approved up to a $2 million contract for 16 months to bus even more migrants out of town,” Melugin tweeted. The Democrat-led city was “also requesting federal reimbursement,” Melugin noted, adding: “El Paso, however, is not being criticized.”
NEW: The Democrat-led city of El Paso, TX has been sending its own buses of migrants to NYC, & the city says they are so overwhelmed, they can send up to 4 buses per day. Local CBP facilities & NGOs are overcrowded, so the federal gov is releasing migrants onto El Paso’s streets. pic.twitter.com/avsKQ6VWbi
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) September 12, 2022