Under-fire El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser finally stops busing border-crossers to NYC
The Democratic mayor of El Paso, Texas, has finally stopped shipping border-crossers to sanctuary cities like the Big Apple — as he continues to take heat for bowing to pressure from the White House.
A city spokeswoman told El Paso Matters that two buses that hit the road Thursday would be the last of the 292 that have taken nearly 14,000 migrants to New York and Chicago since late August.
Of those, more than 10,000 were sent to the Big Apple, prompting Mayor Eric Adams to declare a state of emergency amid the sudden strain on the shelter system.
El Paso credited “the new policy action for Venezuelans taken last week by the Department of Homeland Security,” which allows the South American arrivals to instead be sent to Mexico.
Because of that, border agents “discontinued sending migrants to the city this week because of a significant decrease in encounters,” El Paso city spokeswoman Laura Cruz-Acosta told the local outlet.
“Two charters departed today for the remaining unsponsored migrants in local shelters as well as our hotel shelter operations,” Cruz-Acosta said of the final buses heading north.
The welcome center used for the controversial program was also closed Thursday, the rep said.
El Paso Deputy City Manager Mario D’Agostino previously hinted that the controversial shipments would soon end thanks to the new law.
“We realize that we won’t need the charters, so at the point, we will start handling it differently,” D’Agostino told The Post last week.
The move comes as El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser remains under fire over The Post’s revelation that the Biden administration asked him not to declare an emergency over fears it would make the president look bad. He had openly discussed the White House request at a Sept. 27 city council meeting.
But Leeser has flip-flopped when asked about The Post’s front-page story over the flap.
Asked by Fox News if “the White House asked you not to declare a state of emergency,” Leeser insisted firmly: “Absolutely not.”
Confusingly, when asked a similar question by KTSM, he said: “They’ve asked me not to do it, yeah.”
That time, he stressed that while a request was made, he did not see it as pressure because he had already “agreed” not to declare an emergency.
“If someone knows me, they know that someone wouldn’t pressure me to do something because I wouldn’t do it,” Leeser claimed, saying there was a “lot of gain” for his city to work with the White House.
In a lengthy statement to KFOX14, Leeser claimed that the White House and others “concurred with my decision that the circumstances did not warrant an emergency disaster declaration, as the crisis was managed with everyone’s collaboration.
“Everyone worked together within their scope toward the same goals,” he insisted.
“My decision — taking into account the counsel of our partners — has proven to be the correct one.”
