El Paso Declares State of Emergency Ahead of Title 42 Order Expiration Next Week

Venezuelan and Nicaraguan migrants are transferred by agents of the Border Patrol after crossing the Rio Grande river from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, to El Paso, Texas, on Dec. 27, 2022. Herika Martinez/AFP via Getty Images

On May 1, the border city of El Paso, Texas, entered a state of emergency in advance of an expected surge of illegal border crossings when Title 42 ends in less than two weeks.

“We are getting prepared now for what we call the unknown,” El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser, a Democrat, said at a press conference on April 30.

“I am declaring a state of emergency in our community, and the reason why we’re declaring a state of emergency is to make sure that we can stand up and be prepared for May 11, May 12, to have public shelter and public housing. This is really temporary housing. We do not provide permanent housing for anyone.”

It has been reported that in Juárez, Mexico, alone, roughly 35,000 people are waiting to rush the Texas–Mexico border on May 11. The Title 42 order is scheduled to expire at midnight of that day.

Title 42 was invoked in March 2020 under then-President Donald Trump at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing border enforcement agents to quickly expel those who had illegally entered the United States from Mexico on the grounds that their presence might have posed public health risks. President Joe Biden kept the restrictions in place for more than a year after taking office in 2021, despite promising to do away with Trump-era immigration policies.

It’s “bothersome” that many migrants falsely believe that they'll be admitted to the United States without any documentation once the Title 42 order is lifted, Leeser said.

“They’ve come in, really, with a false pretense that there will be open borders starting on May 11 and anyone that’s already in the United States will no longer be required to have proper documentation, and that is an untrue statement,” he said.

“We are not opening the borders. The borders are not open today, and they will not be open on May 12.”

The state of emergency will last seven days, starting at noon on May 1. After that, it will be up to the city council to decide whether to extend it.

At the press conference on April 30, city officials also said they would prefer that the illegal immigrants not make sidewalk camps, which would spawn crime and health and safety problems.

“We‘ll be asking them to break down their campsites. We’re asking the public not to drop donations in the streets,” Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said, speaking to residents who wish to help the new arrivals while they’re illegally in the city.

“Take your donations to NGOs [nongovernmental organizations], to the food bank. There’s churches. They’re capable of receiving these, and they'll make sure they get it to those in need. The main thing is that we don’t want to start leaving it in the street because it encourages those large congregations of people to stay in those streets. And that’s the biggest concern.”

Brownsville, located at the southern tip of Texas, has issued a similar declaration. It was reported that more than 15,000 migrants illegally crossed the Rio Grande River into the Brownsville area last week alone.