El Paso Officials Steer Clear of the Obvious

Since this past spring, thousands of migrants have been sent by Republican governors from the southern border to several sanctuary cities via buses and planes.

The mayors of these targeted cities, along with other Democratic leaders and many media outlets, have been denouncing the buses and flights using stark terms, declaring that Republicans are playing political stunts and using migrants as pawns.

These talking points fail for the Democrats, however, when the migrant issue turns to El Paso, a Democratic-led city that has chartered over 123 buses of migrants from its border area to New York City and Chicago as of late September.

El Paso, a city of 680,000, has faced the turmoil of the record border crisis just like all other southern border cities. Thousands of migrants have arrived in El Paso this year with no money and no place to go, filling shelters to capacity. As shelters fill, many of these migrants have been released to the streets where they remain homeless.

As El Paso grapples with on average 1,500 border encounters per day in September, migrant homelessness compounds. In response, El Paso is sending more buses of migrants to New York and Chicago daily.

In discussing their busing strategy, El Paso officials have steered clear of bringing up the obvious – the lack of border security and asylum application abuse that are driving the staggering numbers of crossings and wreaking havoc on city resources. Instead, they attempt to divert attention from these issues in trying to differentiate their actions from those of Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott.

In particular, El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, said in regards to his busing of migrants out of El Paso that he is only aiming to “help them get to their destination” and that “there is a humanitarian way to bus migrants.”

Still, his goal to move as many migrants out of El Paso as he can remains clear. Responding to a letter submitted by several El Paso City Council members calling on him to issue a disaster declaration regarding migrants, Leeser stated:

While I appreciate the concern expressed by the three City Representatives, the action they are calling for is premature at this time. The migrants entering our community aren’t coming to El Paso, they are coming to the United States…they are seeking political asylum which is permissible under U.S. law. They stay in our community between 24 to 48-hours, and we help them to reach their destination if they don’t have a sponsor already.”

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, on the receiving end of El Paso’s buses, has been quick to publicly lambaste Republican governors for busing migrants. Yet, Adams is mum on El Paso’s busing, even as New York City builds tents to house migrants and is also considering housing them on cruise ships.

Democratic leaders’ silence on the need to stop the border crisis is detrimental to their constituents. The Biden administration’s untenable border policies are particularly punishing to U.S. communities already struggling to provide adequate housing, jobs, education, medical and food assistance for their own.

LISA IRVING is a Content Writer for NumbersUSA’s Media Standards Project