In Texas, the mayor of El Paso has declared a state of emergency over concerns the city won’t be able to provide shelter and resources to the growing number of asylum seekers arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. An average of over 2,400 daily asylum seekers have been apprehended by border authorities in El Paso in recent days. Local shelters are beyond capacity, with many asylum seekers forced to sleep on the streets in freezing winter temperatures. This is El Paso’s Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser.

Mayor Oscar Leeser: “I said from the beginning that I would call it when I felt that either our asylum seekers or our community was not safe. And I really believe that today our asylum seekers are not safe, as we have hundreds and hundreds on the streets. And that’s not the way we want to treat people. And by calling a state of emergency, it gives us the ability, today, to be able to do things we couldn’t do until we called it, and that’s our shelters, and put people in shelters and make sure that they’re safe.”

This comes as the Trump-era pandemic policy Title 42 is set to end on Wednesday, after a federal appeals court refused to postpone this week’s deadline following challenges from Republicans. Title 42 has been used to expel over 2 million migrants from the southern border, blocking them from seeking asylum and pushing them back into Mexico, where migrants face dangerous and inhumane conditions, including torture and kidnappings. The policy forced asylum seekers to use deadly routes along the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the U.S. as many are fleeing violence, poverty and the catastrophic impacts of the climate crisis. Thousands are now hoping they’ll be safely allowed into the U.S., after Title 42 ends, to finally pursue asylum.