McAllen adds its own disaster declaration due to expected migrant crossings

Less than a day after the expiration of Title 42, the public health policy that for three years stymied the flow of migrants into the United States, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos declared a local state of disaster Friday in anticipation of a large influx of migrants passing through the city.

Villalobos signed the disaster declaration, accompanied by Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, during a ceremony at Anzalduas Park on Friday.

McAllen currently remains far under capacity despite concerns earlier this week that local communities would receive overwhelming numbers of migrants once Title 42 expired.

“It’s not the numbers that we initially expected and we hope it keeps that way,” Villalobos said during a news conference at McAllen City Hall on Friday afternoon.

Some 1,200 people were being sheltered at the county-owned park Friday, which McAllen is using to handle overflow from Catholic Charities’ Humanitarian Respite Center located downtown.

And the city is already working to expand the park’s capacity by thousands more.

“We have the capacity, right now, of about 3,000. We expect, within a couple of days, to have a capacity of 5,000,” Villalobos said.

However, the mayor said it was difficult to pinpoint the exact number of people currently sheltering at the respite center, since the Rio Grande Valley merely serves as a waystation for many migrants.

“We all know this is not where they want to be. It’s not the border area, it’s up north” to cities like San Antonio, Houston and Chicago, the mayor said.

McAllen first established Anzalduas Park as a migrant holding center in 2021, when — despite the pandemic-era enforcement of Title 42 — scores of Central American and Haitian migrants crossed the Rio Grande.

“We know very distinctly what happened two years ago ‘cause we were in a commission meeting when we get (sic) a call from Sister Pimentel that she couldn’t hold anymore,” Villalobos said.

The city rushed to set up a temporary facility in downtown McAllen before ultimately establishing facilities at Anzalduas.

Afterward, the park became a place for the city to house migrants who were positive with COVID-19.

“And ever since then, we’ve been ready, continue to be ready. We never demobilized because we knew that Title 42 was one day going to be lifted,” Villalobos said. “And that’s what occurred last night.”

This isn’t the first time the city has had to contend with an influx of asylum hopefuls. The region has also seen surges in 2019 and 2014.

In the past, McAllen has borne the brunt of the financial burden of meeting the resultant humanitarian needs, often waiting months before receiving reimbursements from the federal government.

This time around, however, the expenses associated with operating Anzalduas are already taken care of, the mayor said.

“We’ve received enough financial support where we don’t have to be tapping into our resources,” Villalobos said. “We have the expenses covered. We have our people covered. And we’re gonna keep on doing it.”

Indeed, on Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Vicente Gonzalez announced more than $25 million in humanitarian funding via the Department of Homeland Security’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program.

Gonzalez’s District 34 represents Cameron County and parts of Hidalgo County, including a small portion of McAllen.

Of that, more than $13.1 million are earmarked for Catholic Charities to be used Valleywide. Another $5.7 million were allocated for McAllen, and more than $6.2 million for the city of Brownsville, where the bulk of migrant activity has been seen over the last week.

For now, McAllen is “not lacking” in funding to meet the humanitarian need, the mayor said, adding that local taxpayer money won’t again be used on a federal issue.

“We’ve said it and we’ll keep on saying it: we do not take (a) position as far as whether the immigrants are here legally or illegally,” Villalobos said.

“This is a federal issue. It has become a municipal problem and we deal with it as best as we can,” he added.

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