El Paso could start busing migrants ahead of Title 42 end

As leaders in New York and Chicago say they are overwhelemed with migrants arriving in their cities, stretching their shelters and services to the limit, El Paso, Texas, is warning it will soon have to start busing people out.

The announcement was made as El Paso declared a state of emergency Sunday as it prepares for a huge influx over the border following the end of Title 42 on May 11.

The city — the busiest crossing point on the southern border — previously sent 10,713 migrants to the Big Apple and 3,259 to Chicago last fall, according to city data.

“The possibility of doing those transports again that we saw in September, October is very much a reality,” Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino said Sunday.

Officials expect anywhere from 12,000 to 40,000 migrants who have been waiting on the Mexican side to cross into the city after the expiration of Title 42, the pandemic-era policy that has allowed the US to return asylum seekers from certain countries to Mexico without hearing their asylum claims.

“[Sending the buses] is our last move, because we’d rather successfully help [migrants] get on their way on their own … but that is an option,” D’Agostino added of the transportation plans.

D’Agostino also noted the city has been awarded $15 million as an advance from the federal government to help it deal with the migrant crisis, some of which could be used to bus people out of the city — where shelters are once again full.

El Paso’s published city statistics for Sunday showed 1,400 people attempting to cross the border into the US and 4,220 people in Customs and Border Protection custody, although most of them would be processed and ejected back to Mexico.

Last August, El Paso sent its first busloads of migrants from the border to New York with Mayor Eric Adams’ blessing. The city has since been overwhelmed as more and more migrants, almost all from Central and South America, continued to arrive, with over 1,300 in a three-day period last week. Adams has since complained about the Federal Emergency Management Agency giving money to cities that they use to bus migrants to New York.

Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has also said her city is feeling the strain, telling CNN: “We are completely tapped out. We have no more space, no more resources … We’ve been seeing over the last week, two to three weeks, 200-plus people coming to Chicago every single day.”

By October 2022, El Paso had sent 13,972 mostly Venezuelan migrants out of the city when it stopped its busing program.

The move had initially been made to keep the local shelter system from collapsing or having migrants sleeping on the streets — something elected officials are again facing.

“We’re getting prepared now for what we call the unknown, and the unknown is what will happen after May 11,” Mayor Oscar Leeser has previously stated.

“It’s going to be very important for us that we do not have people sleeping on the streets.”

However, by Sunday, city blocks were lined with migrants sleeping on the streets near a downtown church, Sacred Heart, according to video posted on social media.

El Paso’s leadership hopes to move migrants out of town to make space for future waves of asylum seekers, many whom are just entering the country for the first time but who ultimately hope to travel much farther into the interior of the US.

“Our transportation system is limited … there’s only so many seats available out of town to get to their destinations they want to go, and so that fills up quickly,” D’Agostino added. “That causes a backlog within the shelter system.”

“Sheltering space is limited. As you know, we couldn’t build enough space to shelter everyone.”

Temporary shelters were opened for migrants who are in the US legally and who are waiting for a bus or plane ride to another destination and have money to pay for their own tickets.

The city acknowledged some asylum seekers would not have their own funds to leave the desert city and would be dependent on help to leave.

New York City was not ruled out as a destination when The Post inquired Monday.

“The last time the city provided transportation, we asked the migrants where they wanted to go,” city spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta told The Post. “If we are to provide transportation again, we will once again poll the migrants so it will really be dependent on what location the migrants wish to go.”

New York and Chicago continue to be top destinations requested by migrants after they leave the border, according to nonprofit Catholic Charities, which is partnering with El Paso County to move migrants.