El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser on Thursday issued a third disaster declaration over the migrant influx in less than two years, days after the City Council didn’t extend one already in the books.
The declaration is good for seven days unless it’s re-issued by Leeser or extended through an emergency ordinance by a unanimous vote of the City Council.
The mayor’s declaration comes after new city Rep. Josh Acevedo on Monday voted against renewing a May 1, 2023, emergency ordinance that extended a disaster declaration Leeser had issued days earlier.
Acevedo cited concerns that the ordinance extending the mayor’s declaration has led to an increased and sometimes unwelcomed state law enforcement presence across the city.
“There is not clarity around the exact amount of state resources and law enforcement personnel that have been invited to our community because of these declarations,” Acevedo said in a statement Monday. The statement added that he’s open to reconsidering his stance when there’s more transparency on what state resources the declaration brings to the community.
The city in a news release said the declaration will allow it to implement and activate emergency plans, provide liability protection to government agencies and emergency workers, request general assistance from the federal government, and suspend codes that allow it to use facilities such as schools for shelters.
Leeser first issued a disaster declaration over the migrant humanitarian crisis in December 2022 to address the need for shelter as hundreds of migrants were sleeping on the streets. It expired on its own. He issued a second one in April 2023.
The state response followed the first disaster declaration: The Texas National Guard set up barriers along a portion of the Rio Grande near Downtown and Department of Public Safety troopers started patrolling areas where migrants gathered and along the César Chávez Border Highway that runs parallel to the border wall.
Acevedo expressed concern over the number of high-speed chases involving state troopers pursuing human smuggling suspects on El Paso streets, often resulting in crashes, injuries and even deaths.
State law enforcement officers have “stayed in El Paso due to the demand,” city officials replied to El Paso Matters via email when asked if they could request that state withdraw the troopers or Guard members from the community. “We do not anticipate that changing until the demand is no longer here.”
In the email response, the city said the deployment of additional Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas National Guard troops to the area was a state decision “as we did not request anything involved with Operation Lone Star.”
The Texas Department of Emergency Management referred questions from El Paso Matters to Gov. Greg Abbott’s office, which didn’t immediately respond for comment.
The City Council on Monday unanimously approved a second related emergency ordinance. City attorneys said the two go hand-in-hand: One extends the mayor’s disaster declaration and the second allows the city to execute its emergency plans in response to the declaration.
Acevedo on Monday became the first council member to vote against renewing an emergency measure.
The vote came after a handful of area residents spoke out against the increased presence of state troopers and state guardsmen in El Paso, as well as efforts to shut down a nonprofit migrant shelter network.
“My vote today is a protest of the actions of the state and a call to our state leaders to provide a more humanitarian response to migrants arriving at our border,” Acevedo’s statement read.
