With new presidency, El Paso prepping for more migrants
EL PASO, TX (KVIA) -- In the last two days, President-elect Donald Trump has appointed two people to his team to help oversee his border agenda.
The flow of migrants at the border has slowed down since January of this year, but that could change.
In the past, the city has had to work quickly to make room for migrants before, and they are preparing for that possibility now.
ABC-7 spoke with Mario D'Agostino, the deputy city manager for the city of El Paso. He said that they've heard of migrants trying to come into the country before Trump is officially in office, but also that some of the caravans have turned around.
D'Agostino also said they're prepared for "whatever tomorrow brings" and they're making sure everything is in order.
"We're tracking the numbers. We're working with our state and federal partners as well. Working with Customs and Border Patrol. We're tracking those numbers on a daily basis. With that, we're doing our preparations we've been doing for a long time."
ABC-7 also spoke with El Paso city representative Josh Acevedo. He said he's worried about the new administration cutting federal funding for helping migrants here in the city, and the effect it could have on El Paso taxpayers.
"So far we have not used taxpayer money to do that. Right? We have used federal funding to do that. So when that disappears, what does that mean for our property, owners here in El Paso? Are they going to be the ones that are going to be footing the bill because the federal government is refusing to work with us? That's on the table."
Acevedo said that there is a lot of unknown surrounding policy changes with migrants, but that they do have to figure it out in the next few weeks to make sure they are ready for the new administration.
