Sign In  |  Register  |  About Walnut Creek Guide  |  Contact Us

Walnut Creek, CA
September 01, 2020 1:43pm
7-Day Forecast | Traffic
  • Search Hotels in Walnut Creek Guide

  • CHECK-IN:
  • CHECK-OUT:
  • ROOMS:

Texas border town fire department hemorrhaging $21,000 a day dealing with migrant-related calls

Responding to migrant-related emergency calls at the Rio Grande has cost the Eagle Pass Fire Department thousands of dollars each day, the fire chief said.

An Eagle Pass Fire Department first responder arrives at either the Rio Grande or a Customs and Border Protection (CPB) holding facility nearly every hour to address a migrant-related emergency, costing an extra $21,000 a day, according to the Texas city's fire chief.

"There's not a day where we don't go to the river's edge to transport patients, and the city swallows the cost," Fire Chief Manuel Mello told Fox News.

The Eagle Pass Fire Department has been averaging about 45 EMS calls a day — about 30 of them migrant-related — since mid-September, Mello said. Before that, a busy day would be around 30 calls in total.

TEXAS BORDER TOWN REQUESTS REFRIGERATORS TO STORE MIGRANT BODIES AFTER DROWNINGS OVERWHELM MORTUARIES

The department spends roughly $700 on each call, meaning migrant-related responses alone costs "approximately $21,000 in total" each day, according to Mello.

"We have all kinds of calls from minor cuts and bruises to hypothermia to heart attacks to broken bones to even childbirth," he told Fox News. "So we're transporting all kinds of patients, and they're all migrants." 

"Sometimes the hospital gets overwhelmed, and we're waiting 20 to 30 minutes with a patient inside the ambulance for a bed because we only have one hospital," Mello continued.

WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE

Migrant encounters at the southern border hit new records earlier this month. Over 10,000 migrants were being held in CBP facilities around Eagle Pass, Rep. Tony Gonzalez, who represents the area, said Dec. 20, noting that around 4,000 crossed into the city the day before.

"There's no funding for this period," Mello said. "So the city loses money right there."

TEXAS BORDER TOWN BUSINESS OWNER SELLS FAMILY BBQ RESTAURANT AFTER MULTIPLE MIGRANT BREAK-INS

The federal government has not reimbursed Eagle Pass for expenses involving the migrant surge, according to Gonzalez. The city has also lost over $500,000 responding to migrant-related incidents this year, Eagle Pass Assistant Fire Chief Rodulfo Cardona told KENS5, a San Antonio-based station

Local businesses, meanwhile, are also hemorrhaging cash, Mello told Fox News. December's surge prompted CBP to close an international railroad crossing from Eagle Pass into Piedras Negras, Mexico "in order to redirect personnel to assist the U.S. Border Patrol with taking migrants into custody," according to an agency statement.

"We usually have a lot of travelers coming in from Mexico to do their Christmas shopping," the fire chief said. "With all of this going on … we're not getting the shoppers that we used to."

"The federal government has to put its foot down and say ‘no more migrants coming in,’" Mello told Fox News. "The government needs to step it up and stop this madness."

Data & News supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Stock quotes supplied by Barchart
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.
 
 
Copyright © 2010-2020 WalnutCreekGuide.com & California Media Partners, LLC. All rights reserved.