The mayor of a major border city took to Fox News to describe the migrant situation in his municipality Wednesday, urging that politics be removed from the debate on the issue.
“Being taken from our community to other communities is not something that just started a couple weeks ago, that’s something that’s been going on for a long time,” Democratic Mayor Oscar Leeser of El Paso, Texas, told “Fox and Friends” co-host Steve Doocy. (RELATED: ‘His Hair Gel Is Interfering With His Brain’: Fox’s ‘The Five’ Rip Newsom’s Claim That Migrants Were ‘Kidnapped’)
El Paso buses migrants around the country, seeking $2 million in reimbursement from the Biden administration Sept. 13. Lesser claimed that El Paso sends the migrants to their preferred destinations.
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“Now it became very public when it became political, and I think it’s important when talking about it this morning that we take the politics out of this and understand that we have a lot of people coming across into El Paso,” Leeser continued. “But they are not coming to El Paso, they’re coming to the United States. And it’s important that we sit there and look and see where they want to go. There’s a big difference.”
Two flights of migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida ignited debate over the relocation of migrants, with liberals denouncing the move, including some who sought investigations into DeSantis for kidnapping. Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas began busing migrants in April, while Republican Gov. Doug Ducey of Arizona began a similar operation in May.
“I went to Washington last week and — and I met with the White House and we talked about the needs that we need in our community, and what needs to happen. You know, I’m looking at, you are showing people on the street,” Leeser said. “That was — you know within a day, we were taking people off the street and putting them in shelters, putting them in hotels, making sure we fed them. And there’s no one on the streets today in El Paso.”
“We want to make sure that we treat people properly, we treat them with respect, and that’s exactly what this wonderful community of El Paso is doing,” Leeser said later.
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