Texas city of El Paso busing migrants elsewhere

In an effort to manage the growing number of asylum seekers from South America arriving at the border, county and city officials of El Paso, a large Texas border city, started to bus migrants out of the region. 

The first chartered bus sent 35 migrants — all from Venezuela — to New York last week. This week, El Paso also has sent buses with migrants to New York and Chicago, reported El Paso Matters.

According to the US Border Patrol, the El Paso sector has seen a sharp increase in migrants arriving in West Texas and New Mexico, as many as 900 people per day. Government holding facilities and local hospitality site shelter capacity have been stretched thin with the arrival of so many migrants.

El Paso officials said that more than 200 migrants who arrived in the city on five buses last Thursday were released into the area without proper communication and coordination on the part of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. 

"Texas Governor Abbott's office remains unwilling to coordinate and communicate with us on when these buses are arriving and how many people they're carrying, but we've been working with nonprofits on the ground to prepare as best we could," Shaina Coronel, director of communications with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, told El Paso Matters.

The events have been organized and coordinated by the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), a county-city entity in El Paso. Officials say that migrants are bused to destinations of their choosing.

Since April this year, Abbott has bused more than 7,000 migrants to New York and Washington DC. 

Abbott's program, which has resulted in political feuds with New York Mayor Eric Adams and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser,  offers timely assistance at a crucial time because a large El Paso migrant shelter was closed at the beginning of August, and area shelter capacity has been overrun.  

The busing program has not only provided some relief to El Paso and other border cities, but also helped some migrants reunite with sponsors across the country. It brought those migrants seeking asylum closer to their destination and saved them travel costs.

"Migrants are provided care packages and OEM coordinates with officials to receive them," El Paso's Deputy City Manager Mario D'Agostino said in an email statement. He said that the transportation cost is reimbursable by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Pamela, a migrant identified by first name only, told El Paso Matters that being in the United States safely made their journey worthwhile. She traveled from Ecuador with her husband and their two young children. 

"All we want is opportunity. The opportunity to work hard and for our children to be safe," she said. She and her family were waiting to reunite with a cousin in Virginia.