Mayor: City of El Paso, Texas to declare state of emergency before Title 42 ends on May 11

EL PASO, Texas (KFOX) — El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said Monday that he will declare a state of emergency due to migrants coming to the Texas city before Title 42 ends on May 11.

We will do it prior to May 11, to declare a state of emergency, for the main reason being we want to make sure we have schools prepared and ready to go, the civic center ready to go and it's going to be very important that we are prepared strictly for temporary housing," said Leeser.

Deputy City Manager Mario D'Agostino said there is a possibility that 35,000 migrants could cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

"We keep talking about this potential of 35,000 in Juarez and what I mean those are truly unconfirmed numbers that’s what we’re hearing from intel. But the concerning thing is for hearing that there’s 300 to 400 coming via freight train daily, just freight train entry daily in Ciudad Juarez and so that number, whatever it is, it continues to grow," D'Agostino said.

The El Paso City and County Office of Emergency Management addressed possible solutions at a news conference on Monday that could be implemented to house migrants coming into the city.

The city said it's ready to reopen the Welcome Center for processing and providing basic necessities to migrants.

The vacant Morehead and Bassett Middle Schools are also prepared to take in migrants. The Convention Center will be used next if the schools are full. If the need goes beyond that, hotels will be used as shelters.

We have over a dozen identified shelters that we would use for emergencies outside of this migrant situation. Those are going to be dependent on how many individuals it can hold we also want to take into account its location, the logistics wraparound services that will be provided," saidEmergency Management Coordinator JorgeRodriguez.

D'Agostino said nothing has been opened yet and the plans are not set in stone. He said the hardest part about the planning is the uncertainty of what could come when Title 42 ends.

"We talk to our federal partners in Customs and Border Patrol, people at all levels of the federal government, and they don’t know what to predict either," said D'Agostino. "And so that’s the biggest difficulty we see, is we don’t know what’s going to actually transpire, how many decompression fights they’re going to be able to do, if they’re gonna be able to maintain that, and so that has a large effect on how we operate here locally," saidD'Agostino.

D'Agostino said they are considering bringing in a third-party contractor to help staff shelters.

City Council on Monday also extended an emergency ordinance for another 30 days that will allow city personnel and resources to assist in caring for migrants. In terms of transportation, so far Houston was the only city mentioned that migrants could be bussed to if needed.