‘We see the storm coming,’ says Texas border mayor

With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz

What up, Recast family! President Joe Biden is expected to tap Gen. C.Q. Brown as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a jury convicts Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys, and three others of conspiring to obstruct Congress’ proceedings on Jan. 6. First, though, a conversation from the border as Title 42 is set to expire.

Laredo, Texas, is known as “The Gateway City,” and a little more than four months after being sworn in as its 85th mayor, Victor Treviño is bracing for a humanitarian crisis he likens to an approaching hurricane.

In less than a week, the emergency immigration provision known as Title 42 will expire, marking a tectonic shift in how the U.S. processes asylum-seekers who show up at the southern U.S. border.

Under the order — initially put into place to stem the spread of Covid-19 during the Trump administration and kept in place by the Biden administration — Customs and Border Protection officials could expel migrants even if they’re seeking asylum.

That all changes on Thursday when the Covid health emergency in the U.S. ends, rendering Title 42 as an immigration tool effectively moot.

Today, the World Health Organization issued a statement saying the coronavirus “no longer constitutes a public health emergency of international concern.”

Hours later, speaking from the border town of Brownsville, Texas, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the administration is working with its Mexican counterparts to prevent individuals being exploited by smugglers and brought to the southern border.

“We are building lawful pathways that will provide a safe and orderly way for individuals who qualify for relief under United States law to reach the United States safely,” Mayorkas said.

These comments come on the heels of the Biden administration announcing 1,500 troops would be deployed to the southern border to deal with an expected surge of migrants.


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Politically, Title 42 and immigration overall remain a fraught issue.

POLITICO was first to report on Thursday that Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) were crafting a bill that would essentially extend the federal government’s expulsion authority currently allowed under Title 42, with a key caveat being that the bill would not be undergirded by a public health order. Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) are signed on as co-sponsors.

The likelihood of this bill being signed into law before next week is miniscule.

And that is why Treviño is bracing for what he describes as an oncoming hurricane — though he doesn’t know how bad the brunt of the storm will, but he is preparing for the worst.

But the mayor, who is a practicing family physician and previously led Laredo’s Health Authority, isn’t worried his city will be overridden with crime. He’s concerned the city is unequipped to be the best humanitarian host it can be.

Like other mayors in border cities including El Paso and Brownsville, Treviño issued a declaration of emergency days prior to Title 42’s expiration in an effort to access emergency funds to deal with the influx.

Treviño expects there will be 40,000 migrants needing to be processed when the order expires. Normally Laredo can only process up to 2,000 on a daily basis.

We talk about how much money he will think it will take to help stem the initial wave, what he wants the federal government to do and why he thinks the crime narrative being raised by some pundits and conservative politicians is overblown.

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This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

THE RECAST: I understand just a few days ago you issued an emergency order. Why did you feel like you had to take these extraordinary measures at this time?

TREVIÑO: Actually, it was a declaration of disaster [that I issued] based on the Texas Declaration State Disaster Act. It was done because Laredo does not have the financial resources to absorb the cost associated with helping these migrants that are crossing over.

It will overburden us and we don’t have the city finances and availability with all of these migrants.

THE RECAST: So what exactly does your emergency declaration call for?

TREVIÑO: It activates our emergency medical plan, which activates our stakeholders including fire, police, hospitals, NGOs. It also activates an emergency plan from the city to provide some limited funds and it also activates the possibility of asking for resources at the federal level.

So at this time, we are all on guard and that’s the reason why it was declared even though the disaster is not here yet. But it is an imminent disaster as we know these migrants will be shipped to Laredo for processing in the thousands.

THE RECAST: How many migrants does Laredo process on any given day under these Title 42 restrictions?

TREVIÑO: Around 2,000 a day. That is the most that can be processed. But if the number gets above that we can’t handle it.

We see the storm coming. Like a hurricane, we have to board up before the hurricane is here.

Our NGOs … they’re almost at capacity or at capacity right now.

THE RECAST: Do you have a ballpark figure about how much you would need to process or absorb this influx of migrants that you are anticipating?

TREVIÑO: It depends on how long they stay.

But it will be about $11 million that we’re thinking of that we’re going to need. But we don’t know yet because it depends on if they send more and more.

So we’re at the mercy right now of who gets transferred here knowing that they have to decompress other areas with the border that are completely overwhelmed. Laredo is a processing center where we don’t have a huge amount of migrants, so naturally they will be sent here.

Then we’re going to have the same problem as they do, but we have to get prepared.

We already know that there’s over 40,000 migrants in the border cities on the Mexico side of the border that are waiting to cross once Title 42 expires and that is also very concerning.

That would be something overwhelming.

THE RECAST: You have a unique perspective looking at this through a medical lens, too. During the height of the pandemic you were helping to vaccinate folks on both sides of the border. From a medical perspective, what does this influx of migrants potentially do to your health centers? As I understand it there are no pediatric facilities in Laredo. Is that correct?

TREVIÑO: That’s correct. We don’t have a pediatric intensive care unit, we have about one-third of the doctors we need here locally, and we have a limited amount of personnel, like nurses and technicians. So if we only have a moderate amount of influx, that will devastate us. As it is right now, we’re struggling because sometimes an ambulance has to wait two or three hours outside the emergency room with patients.

And children have to be transferred out of town sometimes and have to travel with their mother and father. [Editor’s note: If someone has to be airlifted, the trip could cost some $80,000, an aide later clarified to The Recast.]

We found that during the pandemic, we’re medically underserved. We don’t have the amount of doctors we need to have here. We vaccinated the whole community here in Laredo and in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. We are sister cities, we are intertwined culturally, in business and with families. There are a lot of workers we depend on from the city of Nuevo Laredo and families go back and forth.

Because we have these good relationships, it gives us the ability to share information and I think it makes us better and we have been strong for a long time. But when it comes to this situation that is so abrupt, we have to ask for resources.

THE RECAST: What concerns you the most about what is going to happen after Title 42 expires next week?

TREVIÑO: Well these 40,000 or more will try to cross and with no Title 42 there will be no rapid deportation. So they will have to be processed and we’ll be at the mercy of other border cities.

We’re trying to scramble to see what places we could open up. But that requires a lot of money, a lot of cost from the city, and we just don’t have that. So they will be released on the streets, basically. So the city would have to be acting in a way to serve as a humanitarian, but in a way we have to look at the logistics of what we’re going to do.

That’s what we’re bracing for right now.

THE RECAST: When the immigration and issues along the border are nationalized in the media, when looked at through a political lens, the conversations tend to center around it being a threat to public safety. Is that a concern at all?

TREVIÑO: Not at all, actually. You have to live and work here to understand the dynamics. That’s the perception that some people get when they don’t live here.

Luckily, these are mainly family units so it doesn’t pose that threat. We luckily have one of the safest cities in the country. And number three, the main thing is the humanitarian devastation that will impact everybody.

We just don’t want to see this horrible humanitarian situation play out. That would be the worst thing. Safety is important too, but we have the alphabet soup of law enforcement here and Laredo is one of the safest cities.

THE RECAST: What are you looking for from national politicians, like President Joe Biden on this issue? He’s attempted to lift Title 42 and it’s gotten blocked by the courts. On the other hand some progressive activist groups have been upset with the administration for using a Trump-era policy to expel migrants. What do you want to see from Washington, aside from the money and resources you are seeking?

TREVIÑO: We need to have a coordinated process and immigration reform, because what we’re doing with these deportations and all the stuff that’s going on, it’s only a Band-Aid.

A lot of the things really have to be thought through. Not just saying: “It’s overwhelming, it’s getting bad, we’re being overrun.”

When hurricanes come, you don’t know what the severity is going to be. But you have to brace yourself, then look at what the effects are [after] the hurricane passes. We have to brace for it and be the best humanitarians we can.

The only thing is that, locally, we’re carrying the burden of a federal issue.

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Cheers to the freakin’ weekend and happy Cinco de Mayo festivities. We won’t hold you much longer. First, some quick-pop news; then we’re sending you off with a little bit of fun.

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