Potential federal immigration deal could have major impacts on El Paso and other border communities, says UTEP professor

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- The Biden Administration has said it is on the verge of striking a deal with Congress, that would include the authority to temporarily shut down asylum processing at the U.S.-Mexico border. A professor of Political Science at UTEP said if the deal comes to fruition, it could have significant impacts on border communities like El Paso.

"The one that does concern me is the conflict between the federal government and the state government., Especially at the law enforcement level. You're talking about folks who generally have respect for each other, generally work with each other well. This has a possibility of really putting a huge gap between that," said Dr. Richard Pineda, UTEP's director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies. Among other areas, Pineda is an expert in Political Science.

Pineda also brought up the relationship between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, where thousands of people cross the border daily for work, school, and other necessities.

"I'll speak to something that we've dealt with before, which is something as simple as the increased bridge wait times, and the effect that has on our students who come to campus. You know, that's a little piece, but it starts to magnify bigger and bigger. And of course there's an economic issue, which is that if there are shutdowns on the border -- we've already seen this a little bit with the truck inspection points that are being set up by DPS -- that starts to have a huge ripple effect very quickly, in that, if the trucks can't make it, that means the goods on those trucks can't make it, which means delays... whether those things get shipped out," said Pineda.

Tune into ABC-7 at 10 to learn more about the international implications the potential deal could have, as well as how local residents feel about it.