El Paso Matters – El Paso mayoral candidates talk immigration, arena, first-year goals

With the election of Republican Donald Trump as president, the next El Paso mayor will be faced with addressing more than balancing budgets, setting taxes and implementing economic development strategies.

The winner of the Dec. 14 mayoral runoff – Renard Johnson or Brian Kennedy – will have to manage the impact of Trump’s promised immigration initiatives, including mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, while addressing city issues at the local level.

Neither candidate received enough votes to win the Nov. 5 general election outright in the crowded field of eight candidates. Johnson received about 33% of the votes, while Kennedy garnered 24% of the votes.

Johnson, 58, owns a systems engineering and information technology company and the El Perro Grande tequila brand. He has also developed several real estate projects. Kennedy, 68, is an attorney and events and entertainment consultant elected to represent District 1 in December 2022. His term was set to expire in January 2027 but will have to resign his district seat in January regardless of whether he wins the mayoral election.

Johnson and Kennedy spoke to El Paso Matters about how they would address deportations and other immigration policies at the local level, what they’d prioritize in their first year in office, and how they’d address the city budget and tax rate. They also talked about what’s next for Downtown now that voters approved the arena bond revocation proposition that essentially scraps the venue approved by voters in 2012.

Mass deportations and local law enforcement

While no detailed plans have not been announced, Trump confirmed Monday that he plans to immediately issue an emergency declaration and begin the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants with the aid of the military.

It’s unclear if or how local law enforcement might be impacted or involved. An estimated 52,000 undocumented immigrants live in El Paso County, which also has been at the center of historic influxes of migrants crossing the border to seek asylum the past several years under both the Trump and Biden administrations.

“There is a lot of runway ahead of us and there will be changes in Washington, D.C., that will affect the border region,” Johnson said.

“We don’t know what (exactly) the new president elect and his administration is going to do, but what I do know is we need to start planning and being prepared for whatever comes our way, and we also need to be advocates for our community to dispel any falsehoods (about the city not being safe) that people may have about El Paso and the region,” he added.

He said city, county and state leaders, as well as officials in Juárez, need to come together and strategize how they will handle different scenarios and be prepared to work together, adding that the continued safety of the community is crucial.

El Paso Police Department officers question a group of migrants in an alley next to Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Saturday. Some of the men were arrested and turned over to Border Patrol; while others were taken away in city police cars. (Cindy Ramirez/El Paso Matters)

He said the El Paso Police Department does not have the bandwidth to enforce federal immigration laws.

Johnson said he will rely on the expertise of police Chief Peter Pacillas on how to best handle federal regulations, but does not think immigration enforcement should be a priority for the department.

Kennedy said if elected, he would deprioritize immigration enforcement by El Paso police – but would not ask police to disobey what federal laws might require of them.

“You can’t just ignore laws that you want to ignore – you can deprioritize them, which we have done … we have the first priority of keeping El Paso safe and not implementing immigration policy nationally,” he said, adding that public safety is his priority.

“They’re (the police officers are) not going to disobey the law because they can’t. They’re sworn peace officers, but we’re also not the immigration department,” he said.

While some experts anticipate a rise in migrants arriving at the border ahead of Trump taking office, it’s unlikely to be anywhere near at the scale seen in past years.

The city – alongside the county and numerous nongovernmental organizations – the past few years have had to scramble to provide shelter and other humanitarian aid to thousands of migrants from across Central and South America who sought asylum and came through El Paso to reach other U.S. cities. 

El Paso police officers talk to a migrant family in front of a Walgreen’s on Oregon Street in Downtown El Paso on Wednesday. The family from Venezuela says they were asked not to panhandle in the area and were directed to a shelter several blocks away. (Cindy Ramirez / El Paso Matters)

The city relied on millions of dollars in reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency for much of the aid it provided to keep migrants off the streets, with Mayor Oscar Leeser later declaring a state of emergency on several occasions to tap into state funds under Gov. Greg Abbott’s Operation Lone Star.

Senate Bill 4, the state immigration law that would allow state and local police to arrest people they suspect of illegally crossing the southern border, remains on hold over ongoing legal arguments. City leaders, including Leeser, have said enforcing immigration law is not a priority for El Paso police.

And while El Paso police don’t enforce immigration laws, they did enforce local laws that prohibit camping on public streets and sidewalks and tore down makeshift encampments set up by migrants during high influx periods that left many sleeping on the streets. Officers also regularly patrolled streets where migrants gathered to help keep order and provide public safety.

First-year goals as El Paso mayor

When it comes to their first-year goals as mayor, Kennedy and Johnson both said they’re aiming to avoid raising property taxes and look at each city department’s spending and needs to determine how that might be accomplished.

The city for two years has adopted the no-new-revenue rate – the rate needed to collect the same revenue over the previous year on the same properties – while issuing general obligation bonds approved by voters in previous elections. Voters in 2019 approved a $413 million bond for public safety projects and $272.5 million in 2022 for  streets, parks and climate action projects.

Although some debt has been issued, the city did not include debt issuances in the current fiscal year’s $1.3 billion budget and tax rate.

That will not be the case long term, as the city will have to start issuing the debt to pay for the bond projects that will impact the tax rate 

El Paso mayoral candidate Renard Johnson, left, greets supporters at his election night party at Hush Hush, 533 W. Franklin. (Rudy Gutierrez/El Paso Matters)

“In (fiscal year) 2026, we’re going to look at the scales of economy and we’re really going to scrub the budget,” Johnson said, adding he does not think cutting the budget is the answer.

He said the city needs to prioritize staffing shortages and look at opportunities for state and federal grants for funding, although he did not specify what projects the potential funding would go toward.

Johnson said he also wants to create “efficiencies” whenever they can be made. Specifically, he’d look at areas such as building permits so that businesses can build more quickly, he said.

He also said he wants to explore economic development opportunities to attract more businesses to the city.

Johnson, as part of the plan for economic development opportunities, wants to meet with community leaders from Las Cruces, Juárez, the county and outer-lying areas of the county such as Socorro, Horizon and the Ysleta del Sur Tiguas. The Tiguas spent about $100,000 in advertising in support of Johnson, though Johnson has said he did not request their financial support for his campaign.

Both candidates said the Judson F. Williams Convention Center, which was built in the 1970s, should be expanded – although they had differing ideas on whether it should be a priority.

Johnson said there are more urgent needs, especially considering that voters approved revoking the Downtown arena bond that was part of the quality of life bond approved by voters in 2012.

By approving the Nov. 5 proposition, voters revoked the city’s authority to issue the remaining bonds for the arena, essentially killing the project – at least for now. The city could at another time propose a new bond for a different venue at a different site. 

“We beat the arena discussion ad nauseam and (taxpayers) don’t want to hear about it anymore, they’re done,” Johnson said, adding it would be up to the community to decide whether a future project should be considered.

Mayoral candidate Brian Kennedy, right, speaks with Mayor Oscar Leeser and Paul Dipp, left, at a watch party at Hallelujah Barbecue as Kennedy advances to a runoff, Nov. 5, 2024. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Kennedy said the city has to figure out a way to expand the convention center to bring in bigger conventions, but the cost and extent of the expansion need to be evaluated.

If a future arena project is going to be considered, it doesn’t necessarily need to be Downtown and must be a public/private partnership, Kennedy said.

“I think that we need to look at the entire city as a whole. Downtown is critical. Downtown is important, but it’s not the only area in El Paso that needs to be looked at,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy was among three city representatives who spearheaded taking the arena bond revocation proposal to voters and a key supporter of the $31 million economic incentive deal with Venu, formerly Notes Live, to build a 12,500-seat amphitheater in Northeast El Paso.

Kennedy has pushed the idea of making Downtown more walkable by closing down some streets to traffic and placing bollards on them instead. He also would like to create an “old town” at Duranguito, the neighborhood that once was the preferred site for the arena. He said using economic development incentives and funding from the Downtown tax increment reinvestment zone may help accomplish that. Kennedy also said part of the plan would have to include feedback from business owners in the area to ensure there is support for it.

The Downtown neighborhood of Duranguito, pictured in 2022, was at the center of legal disputes over its demolition to make way for an arena from 2017 until 2023, when the City Council abandoned plans to put an arena there. (Corrie Boudreaux/El Paso Matters)

Finding a dedicated street repair fund is also a priority which is being worked on by city staff, he said, but did not identify a possible future funding source.

Team building is also a priority for both Johnson and Kennedy.

“In the first year, we’re going to have to find out how we merge the nine different agendas into a single agenda that’s cohesive for the city of El Paso,” Kennedy said, referring to the goals of each of the eight city representatives and his own. “I think the mayor needs to be the leader of the band, and I know that the council looks to the mayor for some policy decisions, but also some direction.”

Johnson said setting a direction for the city with council is a priority.

“I want to set some one-year goals with the council members (and) I want to get their input and see which direction they want to go in to make sure we can set the goals,” Johnson said, adding that he plans to join the U.S. Conference of Mayors, a non-partisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more.

Race to the finish line

The mayoral race became highly heated days before the Nov. 5 general election, mostly due to political campaign attacks against Kennedy by a Houston-based political action committee that supports Johnson.

Johnson has led the mayoral race in fundraising with an election war chest nearing $1 million since announcing his campaign in January. Kennedy has been largely self-funded with about $181,000 in personal loans to finance his campaign. The next campaign finance reports are due Dec. 6.

The mayor presides over the City Council, but is not a voting member except to break ties. The mayor can propose or veto legislation – except to hire or fire the city manager or city attorney. The mayor also appoints members to powerful boards and commissions with council approval. 

The runoff winner will be sworn into office in January and will take over the seat held by Leeser, who has served two terms and could not run for reelection. The position is nonpartisan. The mayor serves a four-year term and receives a $95,000 annual salary.

Also on the ballot are runoffs for city representatives for Districts 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7.
Early voting is Dec. 2-10. Find early voting locations here. Election Day is Saturday, Dec. 14.

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