EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) – The City of El Paso in coordination with the Texas Department of Emergency Management is busing migrants out of El Paso.
The city offers buses to New York, Chicago and Denver to get migrants to their final destination or closer to a bigger transportation hub.
The buses are leaving from the Union Depot in Downtown El Paso off of Paisano.
On Thursday, Sept. 28 migrants could be seen lining up to board buses at the depot.
Migrants boarding buses in El Paso.
Each bus can hold 45 to 55 people and the city is working to fill each bus before it leaves for its destination.
A spokesperson for the El Paso Office of Emergency Management says they are in communication with the cities to let them know how many migrants are coming and when the buses are expected to arrive.
“We send them the number of people and when they are expected to arrive, so we coordinate with every city we are sending the buses to,” said Enrique Duenas Aguilar, a spokesperson for the El Paso Office of Emergency Management and El Paso Fire Department. “We bring them [the migrants] here so they can get registered; We get them on the bus, we give them some food for their trip and then off they go to their destination.”
Bus with migrants leaving El Paso.
Duenas Aguilar explains that migrants taking the buses have been processed by Border Patrol and have the documentation to be able to move further into the United States.
As we’ve reported, migrants have been in San Jacinto Plaza and other parts of Downtown El Paso. Roving teams with the El Paso Office of Emergency Management have been going out to areas like San Jacinto to speak with migrants about the buses.
Migrants in San Jacinto Plaza.
“They go over there to explain to them how the process works, and they also offer them transportation to the shelters and to contact the NGOs if they don’t have this documentation so they can stay over there while they get their paperwork processed,” said Duenas Aguilar.
He adds that five buses left on Saturday and seven on Monday.
The buses are being paid for with Federal Emergency Management Agency funds and the Texas Department of Emergency Management.
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