EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) — El Paso County remains committed to community safety and supporting community members after a slew of executive orders and directives issued by President Donald Trump during his first week back in office.
That’s the message being sent out by County Judge Ricardo Samaniego after Commissioners Court talked Monday, Jan. 27 about the flurry of activity that the new administration has taken to put the southern border with Mexico on the forefront of national policy.
“We don’t control immigration. What we control is once they are here, how do we handle it? In a dignified way, in a humanitarian way. And that keeps everybody safe,“ Samaniego said.
Samaniego said that it’s important for the community to stay informed regarding these recent executive orders from the president.
“One of the things that you have to understand or the community has to understand is that there’s directives and then there’s executive orders. And I think they’re confusing them. There’s a lot of things that he could propose, but they still have to go. They’re the constitutional items that have to be protected and there’s things, that are not legal yet,” he said.
Samaniego said with the southern border being placed in the spotlight, narratives are being created that may negatively impact the Borderland.
“There’s narratives now going out through the entire country saying that there’s going to be troops here, and there’s going to be people all over the streets and so tourism is going to get impacted by those narratives, the economy, companies that may be interested in coming to El Paso are going to say, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t go to El Paso’ and they decide to go somewhere else,” Samaniego said.
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