On Friday’s broadcast of ABC’s “World News Tonight,” and in a report released in Friday’s “World News This Week” podcast, ABC National Correspondent Mireya Villarreal said that the process to handle migrants touted by President Joe Biden clearly “isn’t working” in El Paso, TX as people are having to sleep on the street and stated that city officials are “asking for help from the federal government, and they’re not getting it.”
After playing clips of President Joe Biden stating that there’s a process to manage migrants at the border and that the GOP shouldn’t interfere with this process, Villarreal said, “But in El Paso, TX, it’s clear that process isn’t working, Border Patrol agents apprehending nearly 1,300 people a day in this area. El Paso is now chartering their own buses to help migrants head north. … Volunteers make sure these families know where they’re going.”
She then played a clip of Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino stating that the city has to bus migrants because they “do not have the shelter capacity. And as you’ve seen, on top of the people we’re bringing in, there [are] over 1,000 releases to our community a day.”
Villarreal then stated, “And when the shelters in town fill up, some families have no other choice but to sleep on a city sidewalk near the bus station.”
She added, “The administration says they are sending more people here to help respond, but city officials in El Paso tell me they need transportation, maybe even a temporary shelter to help some of these migrants as they continue to come in large groups.”
On the podcast, Villarreal said, [relevant remarks begin around 14:40] “They are not getting a whole lot of help from the federal government or the state government as well. So, they’re dipping into the money and budget that they have here to try and help these migrants somehow get out of this situation, get to the families that they need to get to. … They are asking for help from the federal government, and they’re not getting it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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