The White House attempted to convince the Democratic Mayor of El Paso, Texas, to not issue an emergency declaration over an influx of illegal migrants entering the city because it would shed a negative light on President Joe Biden, according to The New York Post.
The Biden administration directed Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser against making the declaration during a phone call, the NYP reported, citing an official, who said he made the admission during a private phone call. At least three El Paso city council members urged Leeser to declare the emergency of the surge of illegal migrants. (RELATED: Massive Migrant Caravan On Its Way To The US Is Forming In Guatemala)
“He told me the White House asked him not to,” Councilmember Claudia Rodriguez said, according to the NYP.
Leeser assured Rodriguez repeatedly that he would make the call “if things got worse,” she said, according to the NYP.
Photo Courtesy of the El Paso Opportunity Center for the Homeless
El Paso has been housing, feeding and providing other forms of local aid to illegal migrants amid the surge. The city also began busing illegal migrants to New York City in August.
The city is seeing an average of 900 illegal migrants per day and estimated costs up to millions to sustain its support efforts.
“It is a sleight of hand what the administration is doing — pressuring the local government to not issue a declaration of emergency, to say as if everything is going OK,” Republican Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose district covers border towns near El Paso, said, according to the NYP.
Federal border authorities encountered over 2,000,000 migrants at the southern border between October 2021 and August 2022, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The White House nor the mayor’s office didn’t immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
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