El Paso City Council approves $4M increase in charter contract to transport migrants
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The El Paso City Council approved a $4 million increase in its contract with Gogo Charters to transport migrants out of the city, as well as an agreement with American Coach and Limousine for on-call transportation services.
The contract for charter services is not to exceed $6 million over the next 16 months and follows a $2 million contract approved only weeks ago.
The council on Tuesday approved both resolutions by a 6-2 margin, with El Paso city Reps. Claudia Rodriguez and Isabel Salcido voting against the measure. The two are both up for reelection in November and recently penned a letter to El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, along with South-West city Rep. Cissy Lizarraga, urging him to issue a disaster declaration in response to the surge of migrants entering the city.
Before getting to the vote, the council heard an update on the current migrant situation, debated the need for a disaster declaration to bring in additional state resources and expressed worries over the possibility of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's controversial Operation Lone Star encroaching on local humanitarian efforts.
A 'dynamic' situation
El Paso City Manager Tommy Gonzalez opened the discussion with an update on the current situation, which he said is seeing as many as 1,000 migrants entering the city every day.
"As far as the people crossing from all parts of the world, the situation remains very dynamic," Gonzalez said. "However, the main countries migrants are coming from today are Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba. Though the number of Venezuelans has been as high as 90% and as low as 50%, the number is currently holding at 70% in terms of the crossings."
Gonzalez said the majority of these migrants are traveling through "one of the world's most dangerous migration routes," the Darién Gap, and eventually arriving at the Juárez/El Paso border ‒ the safest place to enter the country ‒ by bus, train, foot and sometimes plane.
Venezuelan migrants are currently ineligible for deportation due to strained diplomatic relations between the United States and Venezuela.
Upon arrival, migrants are processed by Customs and Border Protection before being assigned hearing dates and being released into El Paso, either to local shelters or, when there are no other options, to city streets.
Most are single adults, Gonzalez said, although some are families traveling with small children. He added that every effort is made to keep families together or reunify those who were separated during travel.
"Our priority is the individual migrant," Gonzalez said. "We provide food, water, connectivity, transportation, as well as temporary shelter if needed. We treat migrants with respect and dignity as they transit through El Paso and we help them arrive safely at their destination of choice where they can meet with family and sponsors."
The city has diverted over 100 staff members from various departments to assist with the operation, which has seen more than 62,000 migrants pass through the area since April.
While Gonzalez noted that the Texas State Guard made a brief appearance in the city to provide assistance earlier this year, he insisted that the operation remains in local control.
"(I)t's important to be clear that the migrant crisis response has been a local operation the entire time," Gonzalez said. "The city of El Paso remains in control of migrant operations...."
The number of migrants arriving in the city has increased over the past several weeks and so has the cost of caring for them. Initially, the city was spending about $55,000 a day on the operation but is now spending around $250,000 per day.
"As the number of migrants rises, so does cost accrued," Gonzalez said.
Funding for the operation is currently being pulled from the city's General Fund, but efforts are ongoing to speed up reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The city recently received $482,000 from a December 2021 request and was fronted $2 million for future costs.
Gonzalez said the city would be eligible for an additional $3 million payment next month.
"This is something that is not just affecting the U.S.," said West Side city Rep. Peter Svarzbein. "This is an issue that has been going on throughout the Western Hemisphere. It's not just El Paso and the U.S. dealing with this challenge. I think it's important for the public to understand that and for the council to understand that."
'We're not at that point'
One by one, starting with Lizarraga, the city representatives who signed the letter to Leeser began questioning Gonzalez and Deputy City Manager Mario D'Agostino about a state disaster declaration.
For his part, D'Agostino asserted that a disaster declaration is something that should be done in advance of resources or funding running out. However, he said that CBP decompression flights and additional buses have had a "huge impact" and, currently, there is no need for a disaster declaration.
Lizarraga then asked if the governor's office was one of the city's partners in the operation and why the city was not pursuing state resources. Leeser weighed in, saying that "using people as a pawn is unacceptable," referencing Abbott's busing plan.
"We don't want to start busing people and confusing people ... we want them to go where they want to go," Leeser said, adding that El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso, and the White House all have urged against a disaster declaration. "I don't recommend we do that either and I wouldn't support it."
Rodriguez, the champion of last week's letter to Leeser, insisted, saying that a disaster declaration "would probably be the most practical solution." She complained that "the city is taking on the responsibility of everybody else."
Rodriguez noted the growing cost of the operation and lamented the fact that local taxpayers are currently on the hook for the tab, but Leeser pushed back, saying that all of those expenses, aside from the lost man hours, would be reimbursed.
"The biggest concern is to make sure we don't have people in the street anymore and that, we don't have right now," Leeser said. "Right now, we're not at that point. I will continue to advocate that we make sure we get that money and get that upfront money ... when you're talking about a state of emergency is when we have people on the street and it becomes a problem for our community.
"We're not at a state of emergency, but I can tell you ... that we know it changes daily, sometimes hourly," he continued. "We're nowhere near it at this point."
East-Central city Rep. Cassandra Hernandez would comment later in the meeting that the assertion that El Paso taxpayers were not footing the bill was disingenuous.
“The notion that it is not being funded by taxpayers is false, because we are," Hernandez said. "And we also don’t have anything in writing, any promise to pay back because, again, we are at the whim of hopes and promises.”
Following much the same line of questioning as Lizarraga and Rodriguez, Salcido spoke up.
"This is not sustainable to the taxpayer," Salcido said. "It isn't, We need a sustainable, long-term solution that focuses on El Paso residents while providing aid to the migrants."
Salcido said the city should be discussing a disaster declaration now and suggested that city consider contracting out migrant services rather than diverting staff from other departments, but D'Agostino said that is what the city is working with the federal government on.
Additionally, Gonzalez noted that the fluctuating nature of the situation would make it hard for a private contractor to bid on.
"Migrants needs need to be our priority," Gonzalez said. "It could have been any one of us that crossed."
Playing politics
For West-Central city Rep. Alexsandra Annello, the main reason for opposing a disaster declaration is the threat of Operation Lone Star taking hold in El Paso.
Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in March 2021 in response to the increase in undocumented immigration.
In May, the governor issued a disaster declaration that now covers 48 counties, mostly along or near the border. It directs the Department of Public Safety to “use available resources to enforce all applicable federal and state laws to prevent the criminal activity along the border, including criminal trespassing, smuggling, and human trafficking, and to assist Texas counties in their efforts to address those criminal activities,” according to the Texas Indigent Defense Commission's website.
Annello stated that the application period for state grants to address border issues expired at the end of August and bemoaned the fact that so much time was spent discussing a disaster declaration.
"That is how the state disseminates funding for border and border security," Annello said. "Unless we're willing to call an emergency and ask the governor to go above and beyond any other community in this state that has declared Lone Star, we are asking for him to do that intentionally under political will, because the governor has specifically said many times we're the only county or community that has not declared (Operation) Lone Star.
"He has used that as a talking point against us and if you were to ask him outside of the funding guidelines, and outside of the deadline, I'm sure he would come down here with every camera he could find," she continued. "And I agree with the mayor and I respect the mayor and the county judge's opinion ... and would not in any sort of way, shape or form support doing that in this community."
D'Agostino insisted, however, that a potential disaster declaration would be funded through other means.
"You can call it political if you will, (but) you declare an emergency so you don't run out of resources," D'Agostino said. "It's completely separate funding."
Gonzalez likewise asserted that there is no threat of the state taking control of the city's migrant response operation.
“I understand the complexity of the discussion, I do, 100%," Gonzalez said. "But also understand that we have not lost control under anything we’ve had in an emergency setting since Mario (D’Agostino) and I have been in charge of these operations. And (we) won’t. I will guarantee you (we) won’t. I mean, we don’t live in a communist country where the state can come in and say, ‘No, we’re in charge and you’re not,’ unless there’s some national emergency of some kind that would predicate some action like that to actually take place.
"So I want to be very, crystal clear with all of you that we are in charge of this operation," he continued. "If we got any additional resources, like we’re getting from the federal government, we’re still in charge of the operation.”
For his part, Leeser regretted the political nature of the discussion.
"Let's stop talking about Republicans and Democrats and take politics out of this ...," Leeser said. "There's people involved and we need to treat people like human beings."
Svarzbein agreed.
"At the end of the day, we're all concerned about the same thing and that's the health and wellbeing of our community," Svarzbein said. "It's not easy and it shouldn't be political."
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso City Council OKs $4M boost in contract to transport migrants
