Months after the Anzalduas Park became the site of an emergency shelter for migrants, it has now partially reopened to the public.
Hidalgo County Precinct 3 Commissioner Everardo Villarreal announced Monday in a Facebook post the park was open again to the general public, though he advised that visitors respect the park’s guidelines by staying away from restricted areas.
That’s because Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley in partnership with the city of McAllen are continuing to utilize the park as the location of their emergency shelter to house migrants who tested positive for COVID-19 and their families.
Over the last three weeks, there’s been an average of about 150 migrants dropped off at the Anzalduas Park with about eight of those individuals testing positive for COVID-19, McAllen Assistant City Manager Jeff Johnston reported to the city commission on Monday.
“(That) gives us about a 4.9% positivity rate which is probably a little bit lower than the general public at this point,” Johnston said.
From Dec. 23 to Dec. 29, 1,470 individuals were tested for COVID-19 of which 38 of them were positive, a 2.6% positivity rate for that week, according to the city’s emergency management report.
The report stated that since Feb. 18, about 140,426 migrants had been dropped off by federal officials of which 12,867 had tested positive for COVID-19, an overall positivity rate of 9.2%.
It also added, “As this count began towards the end of February, and our 2020 census shows a McAllen population of 142,210, it should be pointed out that in 2021 the number of immigrants passing through the city of McAllen exceeded the population of the city itself.”
The shelter at the park continues to have a capacity of 1,500 individuals but Johnston told the commissioners they were averaging less than 100 per day for the last week or so.
He added the city staff continued to work to allocate available funds they had received from the federal government to continue operating the shelter.
“At present, we believe that we have funding in place to keep the operations going through about the middle of April of this year,” Johnston said.
Through Dec. 26, the city had spent about $104,058 to assist Catholic Charities provide resources for the migrants while nearly $12 million came from the federal government, according to the report.
The partial reopening of the park to the public was done at the request of the county, he added.
“They had some members of the public who had asked for access to the park for purposes both of birdwatching and then there’s also some remote-control airplane enthusiasts that utilize the park,” he told the city commission. “They had all asked for access, again, to the park so were approached by the county.”
“We worked with (the county) to develop a plan and if you can imagine the park, if you’ll draw a line due south from the boat ramp, everything to the west of that now is closed to the public, that’s part of the operations that we have down there,” Johnston said. “It’s about 35 acres which leaves the vast majority then of the park still available now to the public.”
The park will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., according to the notice posted by Commissioner Villarreal, while volunteers with Catholic Charities will continue to work 24/7 at the emergency site.
Anyone with questions can call (956) 585-4509.
