City of El Paso to stop operations at migrant shelter as Border Patrol sees ‘significant drop’ in encounters

KVIA
By Kerry Mannix
Published January 4, 2024 8:03 PM

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- ABC-7 confirmed with El Paso City officials, the emergency shelter at the former Morehead Middle School will end operations for the foreseeable future due to a decrease in encounters in the El Paso Sector.

"When we opened up the facility at Morehead, that was looking at those large numbers," said El Paso's Deputy City Manager, Mario D'Agostino. "And so, when I talk about going from 1,000 to 1,500 apprehensions a day, what we saw this week was one day under 200. The last couple of days has been about 650, 660, right around there."

D'Agostino said that shutting down Morehead's shelter makes sense economically, because the shelter is staffed by city employees from different departments.

"It's a lot of staffing requirements. And so, when you start seeing those numbers trend back down, it gives the teams time to refresh down, to break down, to focus and see what the new numbers are going to bring," he said.

ABC-7 also spoke with Claudio Herrera, a Border Patrol agent for the El Paso Sector. He said they are better prepared due to lessons learned from the region's most recent migrant surges, but that does not necessarily mean the current downward trend will continue.

"Every day is different. To see or believe that this might be a trend for the following months, we will not be able to tell. It's very soon," said Herrera.