Mayor: Migrants at Las Cruces High a ‘one-time thing’ to give local shelters a breather

The City of Las Cruces said the decision was made to house asylum seekers at Las Cruces High School in order to empty shelters throughout the city that have been caring for the refugees “non-stop” since Friday, April 12, 2019.

A city official said Friday that Las Cruces has accepted about 1,300 immigrants seeking asylum over the past week.

All of the refugees in Las Cruces and Dona Ana County are being moved to the Las Cruces High School gym for the weekend. There were no classes at the school on Friday because of the Easter holiday. Students will return to school on Tuesday, April 23, 2019.

The City of Las Cruces said the shelter at the high school is operating with a capacity for 235 individuals.

Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima told ABC-7 the move is a “one-time thing” to give relief to volunteers and shelters throughout Dona Ana County. “It just allows us this one time, last time, to give our people on the ground time to kind of come up for air, so to speak,” the mayor said.

Miyagishima said the cities of Las Cruces, Albuquerque and Santa Fe will start a rotation when it comes to receiving asylum seekers released by federal immigration authorities. “I decided to reach out to my colleagues there in Albuquerque, Mayor Keller, also Mayor Webber from Santa Fe,” said Miyagishima, “If they could somehow alternate, you know, one day one city takes a group. Another day, another city takes a group. That would literally be on a three-day rotation and that would be enough to intake and outake the asylum seekers.”

The arrival of the migrants at the high school, however, has stirred up mixed reaction from residents. Some tell ABC-7 they are concerned about the move to house the migrants at Las Cruces High School over the holiday weekend. “They’re bringing in germs. They’re putting our kids in the high school in jeopardy. They say they are going to get it cleaned up. I doubt they’ll do that. I don’t appreciate the city and the county and the health department letting these people come in here and jeopardize our children like that,” said Lowell Johnson.

Miyagishima told ABC-7 the City will move 75 percent of the asylum seekers out of the city within 24 to 48 hours of their release by Border Patrol.