El Paso officials look ahead to NYC Mayor’s visit

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Local officials said they are continuing discussions on the ongoing migrant crisis with New York City Mayor Eric Adams during his visit to El Paso Sunday

"Mayor Adams has been a good partner to the community, and from the beginning we've been talking to his team and OEM," said El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, "It's a dialogue that started months ago that we'll continue tomorrow."

Mayor Adams' visit comes one week after President Joe Biden's trip to El Paso in response to the crisis.

"Everybody was saying that we has sanitized the streets for Biden," said El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, "It just so happened the numbers went down, Title 42 was not lifted. And so all of these things happened, the weather was a little cold. But yeah, I wanted him to see the worst, because that's how we can get the funding. That's how we get people to pay attention to it."

"Our numbers have gone way down," said Mayor Leeser, "The numbers are down 80 percent from where they were three, four weeks ago. But it's always good to come down and see how we've been dealing with it. Because it's still a crisis, but it's a crisis with a broken immigration program that needs to be changed. So it's important to continue to have the dialogue with not only community leaders, but leaders across the country."

Judge Samaniego said he believes local officials and Mayor Adams are in agreement that better coordination between border communities and sanctuary cities like New York is crucial.

"What I think he wants is really, he wants to be proactive. The numbers are down, and as soon as the numbers go up, what's going to happen is we start sending more people to New York. New York, Chicago, Denver, they all want the migrants. What they don't want is disorganized, unprepared, where they get there and half of them are not sponsored," said Judge Samaniego.

Mayor Adams is expected to meet with local officials Sunday morning before visiting parts of the southern border, a local shelter, and a facility providing support services to migrants. He will also tour a CBP processing facility before speaking to the media.

Stay tuned to ABC-7 for coverage on Mayor Adam's visit.