Officials with the city of El Paso, Texas, are asking the Biden administration to use military bases for the housing of illegal aliens, in order to relieve a strain on local resources in preparation for the end of the public health expulsion order Title 42, set to expire Dec. 21.
Customs and Border Protection is seeing approximately 2,500 illegal aliens crossing into El Paso each day, overwhelming the city's ability to support them, with many being forced to sleep on the streets.
El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D'Agostino told the Daily Caller News Foundation he believes the military can house the illegal aliens on bases as it did with Afghan refugees after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan last year.
"What we have been saying to all of our federal partners is that this Title 42 going away, with the numbers we're seeing today is a true emergency for the community," D'Agostino said. "It's a federal crisis that's happening in the border of El Paso. With that, they're gonna need to do some federal operation, maybe like what we saw with the Afghans."
In addition, the high number of illegal crossings has also put local homeless shelters at or over capacity, John Martin, deputy director for the Opportunity Center for the Homeless, told the DCNF, saying, "we're gonna need operations like that. If they're already having apprehensions of 2,500 a day when Title 42 is in place, when that goes the number could go much higher."
But, according to Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Devin T. Robinson, the Defense Department has not received such requests from the Department of Homeland Security, saying, "as always, we stand by to receive and consider requests for support."
The city expects to spend millions of dollars more with its funds and hopes the federal government will pay it back. El Paso is already waiting for a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement for spending more than $5 million between July and September to support illegal aliens, as well as an additional $4.7 million for expected costs for the oncoming spike in border crossings.
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