El Paso, Texas, officials are being pressured by the White House not to declare a state of emergency in the face of mass illegal immigration. In a private conversation, a member of the El Paso City Council was allegedly told by Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser that the White House has urged him not to declare a state of emergency. Councilmember Claudia Rodriguez told this to the New York Post: “He told me the White House asked him not to.”
As the city’s immigration struggles have become more prominent on the national level, a declaration has been expected from Leeser in recent weeks. Of the eight El Paso City Council members, at least three have already asked Leeser to make an emergency declaration.
The Biden administration has faced enormous political pressure over the nearly two-year crisis. Recently, the Biden administration announced a combined border operation with Mexico, which involves increased checkpoints and more resources to handle the migrant surge.
A new migrant data dashboard was launched by El Paso. This dashboard gives a glimpse into the extraordinary numbers the border city is seeing as part of the ongoing migrant crisis racking the southwest border, said Fox News.
The Migrant Situational Awareness Dashboard offers a breakdown of the massive numbers being encountered and released into the community. It can be found on the city’s website. The numbers went from less than 1,700 releases per week into the community during the summer to over 6,800 recently, according to the data. As for the migrants which are in CBP custody, the number has also jumped from fewer than 3,000 a few weeks ago to over 4,500.
While the city is providing over 900 meals a day to hungry migrants, over 1,000 migrants are being released into the community each day on average, according to what the data shows.