DHS Secretary Mayorkas was in El Paso, Texas on Wednesday. He met with law enforcement personnel in the city that is the epicenter of illegal immigration on the southern border. He failed to meet with top local officials in the city and that offended them. They are looking for answers about the coming humanitarian crisis when Title 42 ends on May 11.

Tuesday Mayorkas was in Arizona with Governor Katie Hobbs. He was addressing the efforts to slow fentanyl trafficking with an operation called Blue Lotus. He met with local officials besides the governor.

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego, a Democrat, said local officials will be the ones who will handle the additional number of illegal immigrants coming into their city. He said local officials are asking FEMA for $24M in advance funds to deal with the post-Title 42 increase in illegal immigrants spike. Local officials want to know if the federal government will financially assist the county.

“We are on the trenches. We know what’s happening. We get intel. We’re trying to set up (migrant reception) sites. We know that May 11 is coming up with (the end of) Title 42. All these things are taking place and it would have been nice to say, ‘where are you at with this?’” said El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego. “If it has something to do with us, it would have been much better if we were able to talk about these things.”

“Worst-case scenario would have been just to (meet) him. He comes into our community, we receive him,” Samaniego said. “That’s how it should be. And I don’t see it as an offense to me as an individual, but I see it as an offense to the community. The community works really hard. We’re doing all these things to get ready and it would have been an excellent opportunity for the community to see that he’s interested in what we do.”

Show him the money, Secretary Mayorkas.

The county judge is already hearing reports of hundreds of Venezuelans arriving in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso. He is also hearing of caravans forming in southern Mexico with plans to come to the border. If he had a chance to speak with Mayorkas on Wednesday, he said he would have asked for an assessment of whether El Paso’s migrant infrastructure is capable of handling whatever comes after May 11. “I would be able to talk to him about the (county) processing center, how we’re doubling up on that. The city has got the two schools that are ready. Is that sufficient? What else do you think we need? That only takes a few minutes,” the county judge said. He wants to be prepared for what is coming and who can blame him? Mayorkas can pop in and out of town but the local officials are the ones who will be there to face down the problems.

Why didn’t Mayorkas take a few minutes and meet with the county judge to answer some questions? In Texas, a county judge is that county’s CEO, the person who keeps the county running. That would be an important person for Mayorkas to talk to about what is happening. To add insult to injury, the judge heard that Mayorkas sat down for an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes while he was in El Paso. “If they’re interviewing him about our community, it would have been nice if he got debriefed as to what’s happening in the trenches,” he said. The judge is right.

It looks like Mayorkas was just doing this for some publicity, including national publicity with the 60 Minutes interview, and was not very concerned about helping local officials. This is how it has been – people from the Biden administration come into El Paso and after some photo ops and maybe a meeting with Border Patrol agents, they leave town again. Why didn’t Mayorkas go to the Rio Grande Valley and take a 60 Minutes crew with him to see what the situation is there? We know why. They don’t want the country to see it. The media is happy to play along and ignore covering the border, except Fox News. FNC is on the border every day. This trip was just to make it look like Mayorkas is doing something. Biden is running for re-election and suddenly, after 3 years, the administration is trying to look involved.

This is one of the most powerful images I’ve shot covering the border for more than a decade… @TxDPS Sgt Lupe Casarez consoling a terrified 2-yo toddler dumped alone across the border by a ruthless smuggler with a note around his neck w a contact in Louisiana @FoxNews pic.twitter.com/0bEwCmKW5I

— Griff Jenkins (@GriffJenkins) March 23, 2023

Mayorkas didn’t see anything like that while he was in El Paso.