JUST IN: Del Rio Mayor Declares Emergency Local Disaster Declaration Over Migrant Border Surge

and it's mutual support um eagle pass has always been a big sister city for the city of dalvio texas i'd like to update you first on a timeline and then i'll have the mayor speak a couple of words i am trying to give customs and border protection some time which is what this meeting is also about uh to allude to that which i'll talk about in just a few minutes first and foremost we'll begin on monday we had about 2 200 migrants that were in detention here i'm sorry they were waiting to be detained underneath the city of del rio bridge which is behind me but you see directly behind me is one of the entrances that that border patrol uses to get in and out um to access those persons waiting at that time those numbers were already extremely high it was two days later we at 11 o'clock 11 30 in the morning i did a video where i was again demanding at this point you know any action from department of homeland security and president biden's administration to provide additional resources to the community and when i say community i'm referring to the border patrol because they're stressed so thin at that time we had about 3 600 individuals and later that evening we already had an upward of 5 600 individuals so within two hours we had an increase about two thousand yesterday was thursday my days are all kind of combined yesterday in the morning we started off with about 8 200 persons um waiting in line to be detained and at the end of the night we had 10 503. i made a tweet on twitter last night informing the country that ten thousand five hundred three people is just short of one third of the population of del rio this morning much to my um i don't know how to say it but i'm not surprised but it's just an awe it's just something that's never before seen in this community and i'm sure in eagle fast we're about similar we now have 12 500 persons as eight o'clock this morning international bridge so that said i had thought that the alarm was set on monday this is setting the nuclear bomb alarm that this is no longer sustainable acceptable what's happening now in real time is the the migrants are getting agitated the border patrol can't keep up with feeding during lunchtime the facilities the quality of life the center of living is all being that [Music] in addition to that there is also the potential threat to our infrastructure given the fact that this is an international bridge crossing which is uh vital to our close sister cities the city of germany economy economy and of course the american economy um the infrastructure is threatened every single second that the individuals are creating their shanty town underneath the bridge it is also unbeknownst to the city of germany exactly what they're being what what what what department of home security is building on city property the final homeland security has not contacted the city of jordan directly there are no permits there is no infrastructure understanding there is no water source there are no utilities there is nothing that the city is aware of on what structures they're building we don't know if they're permanent we don't know if they're temporary the city of georgio has no idea what is being built on its property there has been no eminent domain no declaration of any kind of emergency that they that that the department of security can actually build this structure and our city attorneys are trying to find a way to ensure that we're communicating with their legal department but as of right now we have had no communication on the infrastructures being built underneath the city-owned international bridge and this is why i have mayor selling this here from eagle pass to help us to help you out there understand that this is unprecedented this is beyond surreal this is affecting everybody in this community so with that i'm going to open up [Music] we are here in 100 support in the city of rio this situation in the border is an emergency it doesn't matter what political party you are from we are living in our constituents i keep getting calls for my constituents every day asking me as a mayor what is the city doing to protect me and it feels that my hands are tied because our police department is responding to hundreds of calls of illegal immigrants going into properties our fire department is responding to calls of people uh being dehydrated and our resources are stretched and our city still needs to keep keeping the safety for all our constituents so this is definitely an emergency we're getting about 500 to a thousand people for a day yesterday i had a a meeting with border patrol officials with cbp officials and also the mayor of vietnam who is helping us a lot right now but this definitely we need the help of the administration right now the local officials we're doing everything possible to maintain control of the city just like i'm sure like they're doing here in del rio i know that rio's uh the judge the mayor they're doing everything possible to keep to keep order but it's just it's a crisis i mean that there's no other way to say it so this is a we ask the federal government to to help us out the administration's friendships we're in the border but don't forget about us we're part of the united states of america we're american citizens please if you're seeing this i mean this needs we've had conversations with we have a lot of support from uh from our mayor he does help he tells me that there's a lot of buses but he's re-routing them to other places and not not specifically to here but just they're not staying in in the city across but don't get it wrong we do have a huge problem in eagle pass and we do need help and resources so we do have a really great relationship yeah it hasn't been a strong spell regarding the the traffic that goes between the uh behind me and into the city of albunia and i have been pushing on the mayor's office to get more aggressive and to really just stop the traffic in other words once you cross the united states don't cross back into mexico i don't know um how how strong of an effort that the administration over there is putting unfortunately just not strong enough as as leadership in tennessee has proven that they're doing that to divert the traffic we are in communication in fact there is meeting going on right now with customs um right now why would you tell washington so what i would tell washington is again i did post a video february 16th of 2021 during the during the snowpit that happened that this is all foreshadowed pre-warned our mayors here along the border we talked to our sister city mayors we have where we're oftentimes excluded on the conversation of dhs policy regarding um security measures and efforts here and i feel like the numbers are shared across the entire border that we need to be part of that dialogue oftentimes the administration focuses on urban centers which is probably why they chose to go down to the valley or go down to el paso they excluded us from that conversation they excluded us from that visit and i feel like you know the border is 2 000 miles 2 000 miles plus long every community is going to have a different way to have to manage the mitigation of processing individuals across not only legally but off also unlawfully as you pointed out this is city property underneath the international bridge yes and it was annexed by the city when the bridge was built no one is going to know what's going on down there unless the media is allowed to have access to the encampment when can you give us access to the encampment so i'm working with judge owens and ensuring that we are um providing that accessibility to a timeline and reporter of course today there's a lot of different parameters that have changed which is why i'm having it right here right now just so that everything we're on the same page so i can coordinate with cbp which is what's about to happen but i assure you that the judge and i are ensuring that we are being transparent with the city of del rio galverty county texas state residents and the american public and that we're being as transparent as we possibly can with local leadership and i'm sure the same sentiments they go past laredo and further south that we have a right to that accessibility it is our city property and we are demanding what structures are being built by why the is um dhs just abandoning or allowing these individuals to to um just live in these conditions [Music] you signed a declaration a little while ago what was that declaration what was your phone call i'm going to discuss the declaration here in a moment i'm just trying to ensure that customs has enough time to discuss with with what's going to happen here in a minute um before i get to that you'll probably see a lot of dps that we're just leading just now we are in the process of of trying to find some control measure measures for the security and safety of this community and the city of del rio's assets which is the international bridge i disagree with the governor just a few moments ago prior to this conference and the governor is extremely supportive of our efforts locally to ensure that the safety security of this community are at the forefront and are about most importance in his office i want to thank the governor for providing dps state troopers this entire time after he declared his emergency on june 10 of this year the security has been instrumental and appreciated not just by local leadership but also by border patrol that needed that extra resource to help uh people wait in queue if you will while it takes up to an hour three hours to respond to these individuals that are detained not just here but beyond in the rural area i also want to thank the governor for for sending more national bar to this area this is unprecedented i really want to thank the leadership of governor i also wish that i called upon the governor to ensure that we have open dialogue with the administration at the white house because we also need to work together in tandem to ensure that all resources are properly assessed and distributed amongst our communities i did touch space just now i'm going to go ahead and just announce the next announcement let me just take a swig of water because i'm parked um i guess anything up any questions up until now before i go on to the next one um me um [Music] um [Music] [Music] so i don't know which side to [Music] there's i'm working with two agencies simultaneously while i try to do this but is there are there any other questions beforehand so i can get on to the next topic mayor uh over the last years and especially the last months the border is such a political issue many americans believe build a wall and many say we'll build a bridge and let people come over how important is it that americans come together to help solve this issue it is extremely important i believe that a lot of this is the consequence of inaction immigration has been a hot topic for the past 20 years in recent history and you know our elected officials in washington dc need to have that conversation that challenging conversation to really digest and reform the naturalization process this is a failed policy for the american people this is the failed process for those seeking an opportunity in the united states and that conversation as challenging it is needs to happen because this is the consequence of that inaction okay so the next topic is um due to the circumstances that's happening and this is one of the reasons why we're having media stage out here is for the safety of everybody around i do want to be transparent as possible um i want to make sure that you understand that the dynamics of what's happening down there is changing almost every minute now um the people are getting very agitated and frustrated the wait time to get detained is upwards of seven to 15 days that was maybe wednesday when we had a population of in the morning when i got that information what did i say 5600 in the morning because at the end of the day we ended with 8 000. so as you can see as you can see or or understand 7 to 15 days it's going to make a lot of people agitated now we have twelve thousand one hundred and fifty five people as of just now um and so the agitation's gonna get is gonna increase that leads to a lot of security threats and it leads to the potential of the stampede people running over each other it leads to an infrastructure threat as far as the safety and integrity of the bridge itself it just it just creates a lot of variables so with that being said it's my understanding that governor abbott yesterday attempted to close down the port of entries on the state border along the texas border in an attempt to provide some security measures for the assets that belong to municipalities or the state or etc unfortunately department of homeland security denied those requests and that is a big slap in the face because what we're trying to do in real time is protect our communities locally and so it is in collaboration with the county judge local law enforcement state enforcement that i am going to be declaring a state of emergency locally to ensure that i have access to state resources and other resources to ensure that the safety and health of my community and those visualizing the bridge are not impeded upon um i never thought in my lifetime and i'm sure everybody here in our lifetime should be experiencing something like this its magnitude this needs to be done i would like to protect the community texas and its absence and that is my responsibility and i will challenge administration to the best of my capabilities to ensure that our message is loud and clear we need to figure out the next plan of action before i read the declaration i'll ask some more questions regarding the topic what exactly does your declaration do i am going to be directing city staff to close our city toll bridges of outbound traffic from the united states and to mexico so people won't be able to vote across but will people be able to cross this way we are going to control the ingress of egress of the international bridge with the declaration and what does that mean that means that we're not going to have anybody crossing on the bridge from our side so i'm going to pull the ingress and egress of the bridge by closing down access to the outbound traffic and if inbound traffic is still on the bridge they're going to be taken they're going to be told to go back outbound can you say that in spanish um the purpose for that and i know that some questions yesterday when the governor was trying to close there was no really understanding the in-depth information there is intelligence because there are dire threats to the bridge uh our assets there are there is data i can't confirm or deny exactly what's been told some of its rumors someone hasn't been hasn't been vetted but what i can tell you is that i cannot risk the population being on top of a bridge if there's a potential for a stampede because we don't know who's coming in and out in the river that's just one variable i need to protect the employees of the city of delaware texas and i need to protect the assets of dalvio texas in the event that these individuals would get beyond frustrated and just overtake this this fence can easily be toppled with that many people trying to cross over and who's controlling that um so behind me you have um variable various agencies including we have dps national guard and border patrol um and i believe some customs officers may have been deployed as of late um as you're all aware the ports um the security checkpoints novaldi eagle pass um i know comstock they've been closed and they're moving all border patrol resources to this community do you have the authority i mean have you all obviously consulted with people like do you all have the authority to take these drastic measures i had the authority to control assets and to protect the city of constitutional assets yes it's being personnel the personnel and the toll bridge itself so you're removing them evil back near to what you're saying people are agitated you need to really describe what you're talking about are people there's people having babies down there there's people collapsing out of the heat there's people i mean there's babies in diapers they haven't faith there's a whole sub-economy of agitate of people purchasing things you have i mean people are just getting aggressive and if you guys are down there they pick up and they just think that something you can feel the desperation of these individuals they're getting aggressive frankly so they've been in the heat day after day after day and and it's it's it's something that it's very challenging to describe um in words but it's extremely chaotic why do you think this happened and what do you think the solution is the solution is again we need action in congress we need our our our governor and our president to have this open dialogue not just for the state of texas but all border states um we need to have a plan of action this has never before seen but you can't sit here and tell me that i didn't foreshadow the potential threat that's going to happen and now it's happening in real time so i think the administration i think the of homeland security needs to trust the best persons from the border which is elected officials including mayors and judges on how to properly assess the threats and what resources we can use in in tandem to prevent something like this happening in the future mayor can you just speak time this is drastic this is unprecedented and i feel like any mayor along the border will be doing something similar this is not out of you know you have to respond the threat with the same kind of elevation the security forces you have to assess the situation you're trying to de-escalate but you're also trying to control the assets and protect the assets and so i think this is a perfect response to it and if i have the governor's blessing by all means and you said you spoke with him i did yes what are you hearing about the next few days what are you hearing about and we heard that we're gonna that there's a 20 000 caravan is that what you guys heard on monday so now we have 12 thousand so maybe another eight thousand or more that's a great question you know we're hearing reports that there's unauthorized bus systems transporting individuals to to the border states um we're hearing that that that there that patients are now bypassing um the mexican visa i guess that they were supposed to be getting to stay in the country because if the federal agents find out that they have a messaging visa they go back to mexico so they're bypassing that um it's my understanding that the cartels were charging and this is actually a free way to come in there's multiple variables that are potentially creating this influx and i know i was asked previously like why now why why just nations there's multiple layers so i have um [Music] you know and and this is the thing is that every country has different asylum and entitlements and different things what do you say to those who live hundreds if not a thousand miles away from the border who don't think this will affect them i mean these individuals they're going to so in march when i was interviewing and talking to migrants the hot places that then were seattle boston denver miami houston then in about maybe may i heard nashville san francisco um [Music] so my thing is that i'm a mayor and you know if you have an influx of individuals coming in that's going to use your resources so those of you living up north you know if it's or west wherever outside the border it's affecting your communities as well especially the elected officials um i'm going to go ahead and get started with the next thing if this will give them another 10 minutes but it's going to finish reading we'll get pretty close so the next thing i'm going to do any questions before the next situation happens all right so that's before i begin as you mentioned or ask dire circumstances require dire responses and um i'm just doing what i need to do to protect my community and the assets of the city of georgia texas i did see with the governor before so we started speaking here and so he's willing and ready to provide additional resources um including text dot resources um dps resources and and and the like and we're going to be working in tandem with our county officials as well to ensure that those assets are actually accurately and adequately presented and fortified along the port so um i did touch base on what i was going to be doing next i'm doing the emergency local disaster declaration in the city of del rio texas a declaration ordered by the mayor of the city of del rio declaring an emergency and disaster to assist with securing the international border in the city due to the ongoing immigration influx and associated issues in the city of dario texas whereas securing the international border is important to the city to preserve the public health and safety of its residents whereas in 2021 alone the governor of texas has deployed thousands of troopers from the texas department of public safety and hundreds of soldiers from the texas national guard to provide to assistance with controlling and securing the border whereas beginning on or about september 10 2021 there have been thousands of migrants crossing the border and have between on city property based in the backlog of immigration processing by u.s border patrol and there are likely thousands more who are traveling to del rio mexico in the coming days and weeks whereas there are significant health and safety issues to the resident of bel rio and the migrants with the influx of migrants on city property whereas there are numerous reports of farmers ranchers and other texans suffering property damage as a result of the increase in unlockable crossings including damage to crops livestock ranch fences and homes in valverde county and the city of del rio and whereas the public health and safety of the residents of the city of del rio under an imminent threat of disaster from an elevated risk of exposure to unknown variants of covet 19 resulting from the human trafficking occurring on our border with mexico the limited resources of the city cannot adequately furnish the necessary procedures and facilities set forth by the center for disease control and prevention for the testing and quarantining of thousands of immigrants who may be infected with unknown variants of club 19 or other infectious diseases that residents have not been vaccinated for whereas the legislator has in section 418.0041 define a disaster as the occurrence or imminent threat of widespread or severe damage injury or loss of life or property resulting from any natural or man-made cause whereas under texas law declaring a disaster allows the use of all available state and local resources needed to manage the situation activates the state emergency management plan and empowers the texas division of emergency management to reassign and fully utilize appropriate personnel where they are needed most and whereas declaring a disaster also allows the state of texas and the city of del rio to request federal funding for costs related to the disaster and begin accounting for costs that can be made part of a request and the mayor finds it is in the best interest of its citizens to declare a local disaster to account for costs that has determined the extraordinary measures must be taken to ensure the protection of the health safety and welfare of city residences city residents due to migrant influence and whereas pursuant to the texas disaster act of 1975 the mayor is designated as the emergency management director of the city of del rio and may exercise the powers granted to the governor an appropriate local scale and an appropriate local scale and the city council may also authorize a disaster and extensions of same whereas the city of delaware will work collaboratively with the u.s customs importance control department of homeland security valverde county and the state of texas to ensure that all appropriate and necessary measures are taken to manage to protect the residents of del rio and the migrant influx whereas by this declaration of disaster the city of del rio does hereby declare all rules and regulations that may inhibit or prevent prompt response to this threat suspended for the duration of the incident and whereas pursuant to the author authority granted to the mayor under the texas declaration act of 1975 the city of dario does hereby authorize the use of all available resources of state and political subdivisions to assist in the city's response to the situation whereas bruno lozano the mayor of the city of davio texas has determined that extraordinary extraordinary and immediate measures must be taken to respond quickly to ensure and deter the influx of border crossings and devote additional city resources towards deterring the influx of migrant border crossings to protect our border community now therefore it is declared by the mayor of the city of davio texas section one the recitals contained in the preamble are hereby found to be true and such recitals are hereby made a part of this emergency declaration for all purposes and are adopted as part of the judgment and findings by the mayor section two that the mayor finds that a local state of disaster has been identified based on the migrant influx for the city of deorbit pursuant to 418.108 of the texas government code shall hereby declared ordered and authorized until september 24th pursuant to 418.108 of the government code pursuant to sorry section 3 pursuant to 418.108 the government code this declaration of a local state of disaster shall be given prompt and general publicity and shall be filed promptly with the city secretary including all the locations necessary required by law section 4 pursuing [Music] pursue it i'm sorry any use of private property temporarily acquired by lease or other means sites required for temporary housing units or emergency shelters subject to compensation requirements pursuant to section 30 36 2.003 of the texas local government code this local state of disaster is intended to authorize and thus hereby declare that a state of civil emergency exists in the city of davio texas and request the assistance of additional law enforcement to uphold the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the city and section 7 pursuant to section 433.005 of the texas government code this local state of disaster is intended to request and does hereby request that the governor of texas provide state forces to aid in controlling conditions in the city by assisting the city's law enforcement department and the enforcement of law and the preservation of sovereignty and territorial integrity of the city as well as the assistance and cooperation of all appropriate federal administration agencies for the preservation of city property it is so ordered authorized and effective on the 17th day of september 2021. we are now in a state of emergency regarding the migrant influx and i'll take questions regarding this decoration i'm sorry um when does it close now now the bridge is ineffective in the process of closing for how long do we know until until the administration can alleviate the the of the threat to mass uh mass death stampede and everything that's going on behind you so it could be dangerous so now it's closing and it's closing now so what about the children who are here in school live in mexico the risk the threat of something chaotic happening is too extreme to have children on the bridge to cross home how do they get home they're going to have to find an alternate means through the city of eagle pass or other measures you may have mentioned this earlier but what do we know about any code testing at all that's going on down there not even when they're put on when 50 are put on each i know i know some of them are are showing their their vaccination parts and when they show symptoms i don't even think that if they show symptoms they go to the hospital immediately i think it's a certain condition that they go i can tell you that the pregnant i can tell you that there was a family she was giving birth or something like that and then was rushed to local hospital they may have moved her out but tested positive so they took up hotel uh hospital do we know if anybody's down there has tested positive and if they have are they being segregated separated from the others i'm sorry say that again do we know if anybody down there has tested positive or if they're showing symptoms are they being separated i don't know nobody's being separated if president biden was here what would you tell him i would tell him that this is an extreme measure needs to be done we need action could you repeat what the blessing is

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

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Keywords: Del Rio, migrants, border

Id: s6PN0EaRbH4

Length: 37min 53sec (2273 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 17 2021