Son of former Gateway Hotel resident shares the details of his mother’s relocation
Update: Mayor Oscar Leeser's staff asked to reschedule the interview to later this week.
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- In a news conference last Thursday, officials with the City of El Paso called the handling of the Gateway Hotel's closure a "learning opportunity."
Mayor Oscar Leeser firmly stated at the conference that "no one dropped the ball" regarding the hotel.
The County of El Paso, meanwhile, used evidence that implies there was no oversight by the City of El Paso in how the Gateway Hotel managed to collect rent from residents for years while not having an occupancy permit.
In the lawsuit filed Aug. 27 against the Gateway's owner for a temporary injunction due to the hotel being a "common nuisance," the county included a copy of the hotel's occupancy permit that expired in 2018, and added that could find no record of a current permit. The county attached as evidence to the lawsuit records of dozens of the nearly 700 phone calls to law enforcement since 2022 alleging criminal activity taking place at the hotel. The lawsuit also included statements from El Paso police officers who said they saw suspected Tren de Aragua gang members staying in the Gateway.
Sean Fischer tells ABC-7 that he visited his mother, a resident at the Gateway Hotel, multiple times over the past few years.
"It was pretty obvious it's kind of a deplorable state of condition and had been, at least for the three times I had visited there," Fischer told ABC-7.
A nonprofit organization member assisted Fischer's mother in finding a temporary place to live when residents were forced move out of the hotel after the county's lawsuit went public. Fischer says she was "bewildered" when she was told she would have to leave the hotel in just a few days.
"She was told to evacuate her room just with a change of clothes, toiletries, maybe some cash and I.D. and she was to be brought to a homeless shelter," Fischer said. "She was not homeless up until that moment."
Fischer also shared many questions he had regarding the process of closing the hotel.
ABC-7 will speak to El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser today to further discuss the city's claims. Watch our evening newscasts to hear the mayor's responses.
