As winter-like temperatures fell in late 2022, thousands of asylum seekers arrived daily in El Paso, left to wait on the street by Customs and Border Protection agents before they safely found a way to move on from the Borderland.
Faced with the worsening humanitarian crisis, Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency on Dec. 17, 2022 — a move that almost overnight turned El Paso into a political battle zone with the unspooling of razor wire barriers, the arrival of Texas National Guard troops and a flood of DPS patrol officers.
“The state of emergency was to give us the ability to use the funding that we were getting to be able to house, to be able to feed, to be able to help people go to their destination and to reimburse the city of El Paso for expenses,” said Leeser. “It was something that I had to do.”
As mayor, Leeser was forced to manage a humanitarian crisis during President Joe Biden’s battle with Gov. Greg Abbott and his border security “Operation Lone Star” program.
El Paso mayor Oscar Leeser visits the area where Venezuelan migrants are crossing the Rio Grande from Juarez in order to seek asylum in the U.S. Sept. 13, 2022.
While Lesser’s initial action and the City Council’s decision to renew the state of emergency declaration opened the door to the militarization of the border, it makes the outgoing mayor “proud to say that everybody had a roof over their head, people were treated with dignity and respect. And yet not one penny of local taxpayer money was ever used.”
With President-elect Donald Trump set to return to the White House next month, El Paso’s next mayor undoubtedly faces tough decisions about how to interact with a dramatic shift in U.S. immigration policy. Trump’s team is already working on a mass deportation plan.
Texas Gov. Abbott hands a letter to President Joe Biden during the president’s arrival in El Paso, Texas on Jan. 8, 2022. The president visited the border city prior to heading the to North American Summit in Mexico City.
El Paso’s mayor — set to be selected in the Dec. 14 runoff election — will have a lot to do with whether El Paso continues its long history of showing compassion to immigrants or becomes a hotspot for deportations to Mexico and beyond.
Mayoral candidates businessman Renard Johnson and West Side city Rep. Brian Kennedy are keenly aware of the political dilemma that awaits them in their first weeks in office.
El Paso’s response to the humanitarian crisis has been historic, Dylan Corbett, executive director of the El Paso-based Hope Border Institute, noted.
“We’ve seen unprecedented levels of engagement by our local governments, both the county and the city, on the relief efforts for those arriving at the border,” Corbett said.
From left, Gabriel Licent, Mileydis Gil Querales and her husband Luis Angel Arevalo Guerrero, holding his 2-year-old daughter Mely Luciana Arevalo, prepare to sleep on Overland Avenue in El Paso after being released by Customs and Border Protection on Monday, Sept. 12, 2022.
Where does Renard Johnson stand?
Johnson said he will utilize the networks on both sides of the border to respond to any increase in immigrants and work with the Trump administration. But he will also challenge any misinformation or false narrative that is presented about immigration and the El Paso border community.
“There will be a new administration in Washington D.C. that we are going to have to work with,” Johnson said. “My plan is to make sure that I work with our county, our state, and our local officials, as well as our sister city of Juárez in Mexico, to come up with the plan to make sure that we’re addressing any immigration issues that come to our community.”
Renard Johnson, El Paso mayoral candidate, speaks during a mayoral forum with fellow mayoral candidate Brian Kennedy at the El Paso Community College Administrative Services Center on Nov. 21, 2024.
Learning from and adopting best practices from other South Texas border communities is at the heart of his proposed plan to respond to immigration and the border.
He suggested that his trips to other cities like Brownsville lend an example of improving the city’s response to any increase in the arrivals of immigrants and asylum seekers. One practice that he wants to adopt is the rapid processing of immigrants out of the community, similar to what Brownsville adopted.
“We’re not the only border town that’s going to be faced with these issues,” Johnson said. “I also want to speak to other border towns, like Brownsville, to learn what they’re doing.”
Where does Brian Kennedy stand?
Kennedy said he proposes maintaining the direct lines of communication with federal and state authorities that were established following 2022 to address any increases in the arrival of immigrants. This includes continued communication and collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and other federal agencies.
But Kennedy points out that there remains a sense of uncertainty over any policy shifts from the incoming Trump administration.
Brian Kennedy, El Paso mayoral candidate, speaks during a mayoral forum with fellow mayoral candidate Renard Johnson at the El Paso Community College Administrative Services Center on Nov. 21, 2024.
“It is hard to have a specific plan when we don’t know the specific rules,” Kennedy said. “But I will say that one of the things we have already set up is the communication lines, which is our plan.”
Kennedy also points out that the city already has the infrastructure to respond to any humanitarian crisis, including the use of Morehead Middle School, which was transformed into a shelter for immigrants and asylum seekers in 2022.
He suggested that he will advocate to federal authorities how any policy shifts would affect the border community.
Will city police aid in deportations?
Johnson and Kennedy are united on their views of city police collaborating with any federal immigration enforcement.
Kennedy stated that city police will not be a part of any efforts to crackdown on immigration.
“We don’t have the staff from the police department to become the immigration department, period,” Kennedy said.
Johnson, too, is opposed to the use of city police in enforcing federal immigration laws.
“One of the things I will not do is ask the police department to take part in deportations and enforcing immigration law,” Johnson said. “That is up to ICE and other agencies.”
Both candidates are anticipating increased pressure from the incoming Trump administration to aid his mass deportation plan. Yet, examples of cooperation already exist between local police and state and federal agencies in response to the mass migration crisis.
“The city already has a contract, Operation Stonegarden, with the Department of Homeland Security, so there is already some limited cooperation between our local police department and immigration enforcement,” Corbett said. “The pressure is going to be incredibly ramped up under the Trump Administration.”
Operation Stonegarden provides cities with the financial resources to respond to the migration crisis and to improve border security.
But the continued failure of federal authorities to address the problems facing legal pathways of immigration to the United States means that these crises facing the Borderland will likely continue.
“The immigration process is broken,” Leeser said. “And until they fix it, this will be an ongoing concern for all border cities.”
Leeser had one warning for his successor.
“The new administration has said that they’re not going to fund the border, but just because we have a new administration doesn’t mean (immigrants are) going to stop coming,” he said. “The biggest difference is where are you going to find the funding to make sure it’s not put on the back of the local taxpayers.”
Jeff Abbott covers the border for the El Paso Times and can be reached via email: jdabbott@gannett.com; on Twitter: @palabrasdeabajo; or on Bluesky: @palabrasdeabajo.bsky.social
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Runoff election 2024: El Paso mayoral candidates stance on immigration