City considers using Nations Tobin Park to temporarily shelter migrants
ABC-7 has confirmed the City of El Paso’s Office of Emergency Management was making arrangements Tuesday to receive about 150 migrants at a northeast El Paso park while volunteers found them shelter.
According to El Paso Fire Department Chief Mario D’Agostino, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, notified the City and the Annunciation House shelter that it would be releasing the migrants Tuesday afternoon. However, Annunciation House, which runs a network of multiple shelters, was at capacity already.
D’Agostino told ABC-7 that instead of having ICE drop the dozens of migrants at the Greyhound bus station in downtown El Paso as the agency did in October and December, the City’s Office of Emergency Management offered Nations Tobin Sports Complex as a “regrouping site” where the migrants could wait until their temporary accommodations were secured by Annunciation House.
Nations Tobin Park is located at 8831 Railroad Drive, just south of Stanton Elementary School. The school is located at Hondo Pass and Hollings.
“They gave us notice,” Chief D’Agostino told ABC-7. “We had advanced notice of the need,” adding that communication with ICE and Annunciation House could still be better but it has improved a lot since last winter.
A witness told ABC-7 city employees surveyed the sports complex in anticipation of the migrants’ arrival Tuesday afternoon. The doors to the facility were locked when our photographer was there in the early evening, and a sign at the door read “Closed Until Further Notice.”
The migrants– traveling on three buses– never arrived at the park. Annunciation House was able to rent rooms at a hotel before they were dropped off at the City facility.
Chief D’Agostino told ABC-7 the complex will reopen as normal Wednesday morning.
ABC-7 reached out to County Commissioner Carl Robinson and City Representative Samuel Morgan. Both declined to comment.
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