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Speaker 1: This week's trip Cast is sponsored by south By Southwest.

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Hello and welcome to the Texas Tribune trip Cast for Tuesday,

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February seventeenth, twenty twenty sixth. I am Matthew Watkins, editor

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in chief of the Tribune. My co host Eleanor Klebanoff

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is off today covering the rollout of early voting and

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traveling for reporting. It is, of course, the first day

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of early voting, so I hope you are making your

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way to the polls, and I just want to give

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a quick shout out before we get started to our

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live trip cast next week, February twenty fourth in Austin,

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nine am. If you want to hear us preview those primaries,

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both the Republican and the Democratic, you can join me

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and Eleanor live in Austin in our downtown study. You

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can find that at Texastribune dot org slash events. But

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today we're not going to talk about the primaries. We're

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going to talk about in a usual incident that happened

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in El Paso last week many of you, I'm sure no.

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Last Wednesday, El Paso Wins woke up to find that

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their airport had been shut down for ten days due

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to national security concerns. The restrictions didn't end up lasting

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nearly that long. They were lifted essentially that same day,

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but they did bring a good amount of political turnmoil

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in fighting within the federal government and anxiety and fear

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on the ground in El Paso. And they've raised a

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lot of further questions about the government's border security operations

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and their impacts on the lives of people who actually

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live across the Rio Grande from Mexico. Joining us to

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talk about this today is my friend Robert Moore, CEO

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of El Paso Matters More found at al Paso Matters

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in twenty nineteen, is a nonprofit news site to use

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journalism to expand civic capacity in our region, and in

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that time he's established it as in what's in my book,

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sort of the leading local news source in El Paso. Bob,

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thank you for joining us.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for having me. Matthew, it's good to see you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great to see you. So I wanted to start

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by if you could just sort of walk me through

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your morning on this day when news sort of broke.

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I know you had a story up on your website

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very early in El Paso. You know, even earlier for you,

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given that ol Passos in mountain time, how did this

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sort of land? And you know what went through your mind?

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Does this happen? So I was.

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Speaker 3: Actually going to bed just about eleven o'clock and I

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was settled in, and I keep my phone by the bed,

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just because it's an old journalistic habit, and I got

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two dings on my phone at about eleven fifteen indicator

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I got a text messages. Yeah. My initial instinct was

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just certainly, can wait until the morning, and I was

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going to letting go.

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Speaker 2: But you can relate to this. There's no way I

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wasn't going to look at it.

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Speaker 3: After a minute, I did look at it, and it

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was the first of what became too notices from elected

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officials from El Paso that the FAA was about to

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implement an order shutting down the airspace over il Passo

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for ten days, which it took me a little bit

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a little while to process that. Fortunately, my wife is

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a licensed drone pilot and is somewhat familiar with FAA

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regulations and how to find stuff. So I got up

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and I opened up my computer, found the air restrictions,

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and what really caught my attention was that these air

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restrictions authorized use of deadly force for any planes viewed

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as a threat. That like woke me up, and so

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that set me off on what would turn out to

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be at like a seventeen hour journey. I actually did

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not sleep for about thirty eight consecutive hours.

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Speaker 2: Is this from the private day?

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Speaker 3: And then as this was unfolding, so we got our

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initial story up just a little after midnight. I think

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we're the first news organization to report on this, and

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then we kept kind of updating it throughout the morning,

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and as you indicated, by about six am local time

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here that FAA had lifted the Alpasso restrictions. But interestingly enough,

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and this didn't get a whole lot of attention, there

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was a parallel flight restriction in a part of New

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Mexico just west of El Paso, and that stayed in

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effect for another two days.

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Speaker 2: And I'm happy to talk about sort of my theories

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on that.

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Speaker 3: But the you know, the big thing was that there

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was no explanation to this. There's no communication with local folks,

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so obviously the only comparison anybody has to these flight

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orders is nine to eleven.

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Speaker 2: So it's like, oh my god, what is happening here.

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Speaker 3: You know, the Trump administration has talked openly about, you know,

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bombing drug labs in Mexico, so we're worried about about that,

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and there's just no explanation whatsoever. And then as the

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hours unfolded and as the days unfolded, we got a

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lot of explanation, and it just it comes down to

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just good old fashioned government confidence at every level.

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Speaker 2: So that's sort of the short version.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, you mentioned you know, you're well, you're working

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through the night. I am blissfully asleep, unaware that any

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of this is going on. But then I wake up,

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you know, pretty early to help start getting my kids

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ready for school, and I see this and have that

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sort of disoriented reaction of like am I still dreaming?

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Like are we under invasion?

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Speaker 2: Right now?

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Speaker 1: You mentioned, you know, the the only real comparison, the

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last time this had happened was on September eleventh, right,

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And so that's like the sort of context when these

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things go on. I mean, my understanding from your reporting

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from other people as reporting, is that local officials did

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not get any kind of like heads up or advance

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warning on this. I mean, what are they saying to you?

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What are their reactions to this in those early hours,

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as there don't seem to be any answers here.

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Speaker 3: Well, most local officials were finding out from us, and

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so like the general reaction is, Bob, what can you

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tell us?

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Speaker 2: I don't know.

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Speaker 3: And so when you've got, you know, the local leadership

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of the community trying to get information about what happened

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from a journalist who hasn't now slept in a full day. Man,

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it's not a recipe for success. And you know, the

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collors from an Escobar was involved in trying to reach

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out to the folks at the FAA to get answers.

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I was able, interestingly enough in the restriction noticed there

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was actually a bone number like if you have more,

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if you need more information about this restriction, called this number.

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So I did a two or two number of DC

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and I got this poor guy uh uh at the

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f a A. And I said, you know, okay, and

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I identified myself that I'm a journalist. I said, can

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you tell me what's going on? And he said he said,

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I can't. And it's and it's not because I won't,

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it's because I don't know. They just handed me this

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and said to post it Uh. So again that was

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not particularly reassuring. Uh And and so there was you know,

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by the time the restrictions got lifted with no explanation,

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you did have the uh uh sectory of transportation. Sean

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Duffy posts a tweet early about you know, a drone

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uh impeding in the airspace and it was taken out

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and we had to do this. So that was just

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said the lie right that that didn't happen. And it's

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kind of very typical of what happens a lot with

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the Trump administration. For those of us on the border.

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It's like, you know, whatever the truth is, like default

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to some kind of attack from Mexico, whether it's drones

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or people or whatever.

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Speaker 2: And you know, the truth that those of us who

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live on the border know.

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Speaker 3: That there have been drone incursions across the border since

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drones got invented. Essentially they happen all the time. And

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I'm not saying that's a good thing. Clearly, the cartels

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are using it primarily as a surveillance technique to try

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to figure out where the border patrol is. But those

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those incursions aren't viewed as a threat to our airspace.

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And it turns out what is views of the threat

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to our airspace by the FAA is the border patrol

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firing off lasers with no real discussion about the safety.

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Speaker 1: Right, And so this is what sort of becomes revealed

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over time in the twenty four hours after this happens,

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is essentially that the unic Department Defense was using a

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new our Homeland Security was using a new high end

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energy laser weapon to take out drones what they believed

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were drones being used by Mexican cartels to smuggle drugs

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across the border. This laser is essentially being used pretty

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close to the El Paso Airport, causing the FAA to

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determine that this is unsafe. It's unsafe for planes to fly,

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you know, to the airport in this case, right, am

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I getting that right?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 3: And so lots of interesting things to unpacked there for

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those of us who live here. So one is why

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are they testing lasers at toward Blitz. The military has

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a massive testing facility an hour up the road at

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White Sands Missile Range, which has, by the way, cleared

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airspace from ground to orbit that nobody can fly over

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for exactly this reason.

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Speaker 2: And so for whatever reason, the.

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Speaker 3: Department of Defense is testing these lasers, I think reported

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from the New York Times and some others later said

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that this has been going on since about twenty twenty four,

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and then in January of this year, the Secretary of Defense,

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I'm sorry, the Secretary of War, Pete Heegs, that told

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the Army to share their weapons with Department of Homeland Security.

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So at some point in January, DHS, which is almost

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certainly a border patrol, gets access to these laser weapons,

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and that apparently is where the FAA gets a little

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bit nervous. They've been in conversation with the Department of

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Defense around these issues and hadn't made any headway, and

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then they really ran into obstacles trying to work with

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Homeland Security. And you know, right, that's the FAA's job

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is to keep airspace safe. And some of the reporting

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that's come out nationally has been that the relationship between

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the FAA and the Department of Defense have been really

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strained since last year when you had the tragic accident

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at Reagan Airport in DC, where an Army helicopter collided

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with an airplane coming in to land.

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Speaker 2: So those tensions exist.

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Speaker 3: As sort of a backstory here, and so Apparently they

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were supposed to have a meeting on February twentieth to

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talk about it. The FAA he wanted that meeting move up.

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Nothing really happened with that. And then when you have

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this deployment of the laser near a Passo International, that's

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when the boarder or the fa said, Okay, we have

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to act and we have to put in this restriction.

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And the restriction they wound up putting in is just insane.

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So they shut down the airspace around El Paso and

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then a secretary in New Mexico for ten days, starting

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late at night on February tenth, supposed to run through

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February twentieth. This restriction grounded military, grounded public safety flights,

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grounded air ambulances, like everything.

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Speaker 2: El Paso was a no flism.

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Speaker 3: That is an unprecedented restriction, both in length of time

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and scope of restrictions at a major, major city. Even

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after nine to eleven, things weren't that drastic. They allowed

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public safety flights and some other flights to continue.

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Speaker 2: So also because there's no conversation.

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Speaker 3: With local leadership, this is like massively disruptive to the

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local economy of the nation's twenty third largest city.

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Speaker 2: Al Passo International Airport.

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Speaker 3: Is a major economic engine, not just for passenger flights,

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but for cargo flights. Hospitals rely on getting medical goods

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flown in on a just in time inventory basis.

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Speaker 2: Since it was a threat to our economy, it.

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Speaker 3: Was a threat to public safety, it is a threat

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to public health, and no conversations at all from the

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federal government to the local government. And also it's worth

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noting that Alpasso International Airport is a city owned airport.

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They own this property and obviously they're going to have

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people coming in in a few hours looking to catch flights.

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The airlines weren't notified, so it was just just this

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sprawl event.

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Speaker 1: Is there any have you heard or seen in El

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Pasa matters reporting like did this have you know? It

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happened during a sort of low flight traffic time, right,

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there's not I'd imagine there's not a lot of El

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Paso flights coming in, you know after midnight. But did

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this actually impact operations in any way? Were there you know,

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air ambulance or flights into El Pasa that were disrupted

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because of this?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so there were Metavac helicopter flights that were rerouted

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to Las Cruises in southern New Mexico. Fortunately none of

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them as far as we could tell. We're carrying Level

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one trauma Patients University Medical Center in Olpasa at the

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only Level one trauma center in the region. If somebody

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had been in a bad traffic accident or had been

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shot in some kind of outlying area, they would not

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have gotten the medical care that they needed. But there

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were some disruptions, and also the airlines wound up canceling

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fourteen flights that were in and out of our Past

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International in the morning. They had to preemptively take those

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out and then once the restrictions were lifted. Fortunately there

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weren't any other disruptions to passing through traffic anyhow, there.

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Speaker 2: Was a total fourteen flights that got canceled.

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Speaker 1: Okay, that makes sense. Yeah, I mean I think like nationally,

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you know, this was viewed as sort of a crazy, wild,

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you know, experience in some people's perspectives, almost a sort

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of comical like example of the dysfunctioning federal government. Right,

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But I mean it did. I was, you know, sitting

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there watching this sort of play out that during that day,

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and I think it did really kind of lay out

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you know why you want a functioning, you know, professional

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government that communicates with each other and operates, you know,

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with an understanding of the risks and what's important going on,

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and it's communicating and and all the different things that

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you ask for for your government, that it does have

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real impacts. Right, people did have their flights canceled, you know.

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I think lucky too that there wasn't some kind of major,

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you know, accident or anything like that during that time.

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But like, people's lives really could have been at risk here,

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if you know, due to this miscommunication and maybe a

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lack of understanding of the impact of their their actions here.

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I want to talk a little bit of people.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there were people who bugged out of El Paso,

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uh when there was this uncertainty uh. And it's like,

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you know, if something's going to happen here, I don't

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want to be here when it happens. So they kind

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of jumped in their car and drove off until the

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all clear sounded. So, you know, I think the one

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thing all those impacts you you layout or real, But

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I think the other thing not to lose sight of

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is that you had eight hundred thousand people living here

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who are waking up in the.

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Speaker 2: Morning or in some cases staying.

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Speaker 3: Wing through the night, like, what the hell is about

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to happen to me? What decisions do I need to

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make for my family? That those are pretty serious implications

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of this field too.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely absolutely all right, let's pause for a second to

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hear from our sponsors, and then we'll talk a little

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bit more about the reaction on the ground, and I'll pass.

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So this episode is brought to you by south By

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T R B T sorry t R I B c

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A s t okay, so bob. This then set off

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a lot of anger by you know, the mayor, the

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local members of Congress and everything like that. Tell me

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a little bit about just what folks have been saying,

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you know, from you know, the leadership capacity in El

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Paso in the days following this.

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Speaker 3: Now the main message was that not communicating with local

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partners is unacceptable and dangerous and and you're right, there

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was a lot of anger.

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Speaker 2: Initially. Mayor Renard Johnson, who is a pretty laid back

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guy and not a boat rocker.

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Speaker 3: Uh, he was really really upset and really more outspoken

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than I've seen him in the year he's been in office,

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really really critical about what had happened. Congress from an

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Escobar who was kind of on the front lines of

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having to deal with the federal government, also extraordinarily frustrated

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with not being able to get information. And then, you know,

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I think we also have to acknowledge that there are

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others who I think, for parties and reasons, weren't particularly critical.

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Congress Montoni Gonzalez, who represents a part of our passo

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and interestingly, in the last redistricting fight, was trying to

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get the legislature to throw all passive.

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Speaker 2: International airport into his district unsuccessfully.

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Speaker 3: He basically has not had anything to say other than

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all we need to kind of figure out where you know.

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Speaker 2: Where things might have went wrong.

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Speaker 3: Senator Cruz, I think has been a little bit more

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outspoken kind of saying we need a briefing. The Congresswoman

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Escobar and three members of Congress from New Mexico have

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requested a classified briefing from the affected UH executive agencies.

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They asked UH the two Texas manators and Congressman Gonzalez

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joining that letter, and they didn't. So even in this

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really serious moment for all pass I think to be

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frank a warning sign of dysfunction for our government that

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we really ought to be paying attention to. You, you're

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still seeing this kind of partisan breakdown here where Republicans

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and Democrats seem unable to come together and say, let's

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fix this problem together. And you know, I think that

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this this is a hugely embarrassing moment for the Trump administration,

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I'm sure, but their embarrassment shouldn't be our principal concern

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right now. And I think in public safety and trying

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to make sure that you.

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Speaker 2: Know, a bunch of things don't happen again.

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Speaker 3: Make sure we don't have a government agencies firing off

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experimental lasers in airspace near major cities. Make sure that

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the FAA has more clear policies on when to impose

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fight and restrictions over majorities. All of these should be

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sort of non partisan or bipartisan sorts of points of agreement.

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But you know, because of our broken political system, we

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can't even get there.

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Speaker 1: Right now, right, you know, I mean, you know, we

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talk about the deploying of this laser, right and Sean

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Duffy among other people, you know, saying that they were

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shooting at a drone. I mean, among the things that

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were reported by the New York Times and other national

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media is that it wasn't actually a drone they shot down,

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but rather a what has been described as a party balloon,

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and I think in another New York Times article kind

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of described it as a sort of metallic you know,

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like one of those like you know, balloons you buy

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at the grocery store that you know, for a kid's party,

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which you know, I mean a lot of people laughed

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at and chuckled at, you know, again to to show dysfunction.

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But again I think it's just worth repeating, right that

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that dysfunction has human impacts. It you know, terrifies hundreds

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of thousands of people, that it shuts down travel and

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and and all those different types of things. But I mean,

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I feel like it also raised a question in my mind,

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and I'm curious about how you think about this as

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someone who actually lives in this community around just like

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you know, the understanding of like how life is actually

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experienced in the border, right, There's been you know, for

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across administrations for a very long time, of course, places

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like El Paso and other along Texas and New Mexico,

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in California, in Arizona, conversations about you know, the whether

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the border is lawless and all those different issues that

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are going on, whether you know, even people in government

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might have a sort of caricature of the border as

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opposed to the reality. And this sort of act of

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shooting down a balloon thinking that it's a cartel drone,

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you know, sort of puts that into sharp relief. Is

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what about that? I mean, are people sort of did

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that kind of aspect of that hit home with people

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in El Paso this this past week.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I want to start by saying, mistakenly, shooting

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down a balloon is objectively funny and.

383
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Speaker 2: Should be fair enough. Don't hold that.

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Speaker 3: Against anybody, But I think the one thing and I

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00:23:56,839 --> 00:24:01,160
may be sensitive because I live here, but the one

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00:24:01,200 --> 00:24:03,799
thing that really jumps out and me from this whole

387
00:24:03,839 --> 00:24:09,960
saga is there was never any discussion at any point

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00:24:10,480 --> 00:24:12,799
about the people who live here, right and in this

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decision making chain and the federal government, there really no like, hey, uh,

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if we fire off this laser, could could there be

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some disruption to the hundreds of thousands of people who

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live here, And not to mention the one point two

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million people on the other side of the border. No

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conversation that I've seen from anybody in the FAA like

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00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:40,759
what would a decision to shut down airspace do uh

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00:24:41,240 --> 00:24:46,359
for El Paso. So there's no sense that there are

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00:24:46,400 --> 00:24:48,440
real people who live here and there are lives that

398
00:24:48,440 --> 00:24:51,079
are that are going to be affected. And as you indicated,

399
00:24:51,519 --> 00:24:54,359
that's not a new phenomenon here unfortunately.

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00:24:54,960 --> 00:24:55,200
Speaker 2: Uh.

401
00:24:55,279 --> 00:24:59,519
Speaker 3: And and while it has happened across administrations, and as

402
00:24:59,559 --> 00:25:02,440
you indicate, I don't want to give the Trump administration

403
00:25:02,519 --> 00:25:06,400
a pass here, it is far more pronounced in both

404
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,559
Trump's first term and second term. It's not an accident

405
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that the Trump administration in Trump one, began the family separation.

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Speaker 2: Policy in Il Passo.

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Speaker 3: You know, it's not a coincidence that Trump came to

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00:25:21,799 --> 00:25:25,799
al Passo to do a build the Wall thing without

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any kind of real indication of what the people on

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the ground thought. And it's certainly not an accident that

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00:25:33,599 --> 00:25:37,799
Trump decided to come to al Passo in the days

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after the Walmart mass.

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Speaker 2: Shooting in twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 3: It's quite bipartisan pleading from people in all Passo to

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stay away because the community was hurting. So there's no

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00:25:49,480 --> 00:25:54,519
recognition that there are human beings with real needs and

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fears and concerns and hopes and dreams. Al Passo is

418
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:04,640
sort of this handy political prop which I think Sean

419
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:08,319
Duffy immediately plays into. It's like, oh, there's a you know,

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00:26:08,359 --> 00:26:10,960
we shot down this drone that that came over.

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Speaker 2: He knew that wasn't true.

422
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Speaker 3: But but it's a message that plays very well.

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Speaker 2: With with the base. Uh.

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Speaker 3: And you know, I think all people, you know, even

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if you don't live here in the border should should

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have some concerns about I think the overlooking of the

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00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:34,240
humanity that's here. And you know, I'll Passou is not

428
00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:37,720
a perfect city. We've got like any other community, we've

429
00:26:37,720 --> 00:26:40,880
got flows, we've got challenges and things like that. But

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00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:43,759
there are good people who live here, and and and

431
00:26:43,960 --> 00:26:47,720
people just wanting to take care of their families and

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00:26:47,720 --> 00:26:50,599
and be able to go to work, be able to

433
00:26:50,599 --> 00:26:53,640
board a flight, uh, be able to come home from

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00:26:53,680 --> 00:26:57,000
a business trip. You know, all of that was just

435
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sort of invisible to the decision makers in this whole

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00:27:01,359 --> 00:27:02,160
chain of events.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting you sort of had me thinking about that.

438
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Like the I the explanation that we were shooting down

439
00:27:10,319 --> 00:27:14,039
a drone, you know, using this dangerous laser we had

440
00:27:14,079 --> 00:27:16,839
to do. This makes a lot more sense if you

441
00:27:17,559 --> 00:27:20,440
are bought into the idea of you know, the border

442
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as a almost like sort of war zone, you know,

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where like communities are under siege, right And you know,

444
00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:32,359
whether he believed that or not, it was probably a

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message that you know, to a certain segment of society,

446
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:38,559
of our population, made it seem like a more rational

447
00:27:39,079 --> 00:27:42,200
choice to deploy that laser. But but again, like even that,

448
00:27:42,240 --> 00:27:44,920
I mean that's frustration that has gone back for a

449
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:46,839
very long time of this idea of like, well, that's

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not exactly how people in Olpasso experience living here. This

451
00:27:51,319 --> 00:27:55,559
it's not a place of lawlessness and disorder. It's it's

452
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it's you know, a growing community.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's it's a vital community, and it's and it's

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important for the country. It is a huge economic engine

455
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for Texas. For example, that because of our isolation, a

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lot of Texans kind.

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Speaker 2: Of lose sight of that.

458
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Speaker 3: And and I get that, you know, we're in a

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different time zone from everyone else, and and it could

460
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be kind of hard to get here. But but El

461
00:28:24,200 --> 00:28:27,200
Paso is a vital part of Texas, and and we

462
00:28:27,279 --> 00:28:31,359
feel connected to the state here, and and you know,

463
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:33,640
I think all of that kind of gets lost in

464
00:28:33,839 --> 00:28:35,400
the political shuttles.

465
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:39,119
Speaker 1: What about just like broadly, like how how does El

466
00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:42,440
Paso feel different now than maybe it did two years ago.

467
00:28:43,359 --> 00:28:45,720
I mean, you know, there have been times in recent years,

468
00:28:45,759 --> 00:28:49,039
particularly in the Biden administration, where I know, local officials

469
00:28:49,039 --> 00:28:51,720
are really concerned about, you know, the amount of migrants

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00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:55,599
coming over being you know released. You know, there were

471
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times where Al Paso was you know, bussing migrants to

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other destinations because they felt like they're services were being overwhelmed.

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We are now in a time, of course, where border crossings,

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00:29:05,359 --> 00:29:12,119
border encounters have dramatically shifted, in large part because of

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00:29:12,319 --> 00:29:14,920
you know, the actions that the Trump administration has taken

476
00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:17,440
but there are also, i know, concerns about the military,

477
00:29:17,640 --> 00:29:21,039
militarization of the community and things like that. Just what

478
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,720
is what is different about El Paso in February twenty

479
00:29:24,759 --> 00:29:28,920
twenty six than you know, February twenty twenty four.

480
00:29:30,319 --> 00:29:34,039
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think first of all, to understand, even at

481
00:29:34,039 --> 00:29:38,000
the height of migration, when there were some really really

482
00:29:38,160 --> 00:29:41,799
difficult things happening here, people sleeping outside in the dead

483
00:29:41,799 --> 00:29:46,720
of winter, you know, by the hundreds, most of that

484
00:29:47,039 --> 00:29:50,039
never impacted the daily life of El Paso.

485
00:29:51,599 --> 00:29:55,039
Speaker 2: Believe it or not. There are things that happen here other.

486
00:29:54,880 --> 00:30:00,200
Speaker 3: Than migration, right, and so I think that that's an

487
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,920
important thing to understand. So the lives of our past

488
00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:07,359
ones have not changed dramatically because of the change in

489
00:30:07,920 --> 00:30:12,200
immigration policies. People still go about their business here like

490
00:30:12,200 --> 00:30:13,200
like like they always have.

491
00:30:14,519 --> 00:30:19,000
Speaker 2: The community remains very safe by by US standards.

492
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:23,279
Speaker 3: Primary that's much lower than what you see in other

493
00:30:23,359 --> 00:30:24,119
major cities.

494
00:30:25,079 --> 00:30:25,759
Speaker 2: I think I'll pass.

495
00:30:25,839 --> 00:30:29,200
Speaker 3: Ones by and large are more worried about, you know,

496
00:30:29,759 --> 00:30:30,759
getting jobs that.

497
00:30:30,720 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 2: Pay well here so that they can raise a family.

498
00:30:34,559 --> 00:30:35,000
I'll pass.

499
00:30:35,039 --> 00:30:39,720
Speaker 3: The biggest issue is we are exporting young adults. You

500
00:30:39,799 --> 00:30:42,160
mentioned earlier that I'll pass those a growing community. It

501
00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:45,920
turns out that's really not acturate. I'll Passo is a

502
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:50,880
community that's dealing with population stagnation because of economic challenges.

503
00:30:50,920 --> 00:30:53,920
Primarily are our low wading structure here, so those those

504
00:30:53,960 --> 00:30:58,279
issues really rise a lot more for people who do

505
00:30:58,400 --> 00:31:03,920
deal directly with micro It's obviously been a huge change.

506
00:31:05,319 --> 00:31:05,519
Speaker 2: You know.

507
00:31:05,559 --> 00:31:08,960
Speaker 3: The Trump administration does like to say that it hasn't

508
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:15,519
released any migrants from custody since it took office.

509
00:31:15,839 --> 00:31:19,599
Speaker 2: That may not surprise anybody not to be true.

510
00:31:20,359 --> 00:31:23,160
Speaker 3: There are still shelters here that are taking in people

511
00:31:23,599 --> 00:31:25,279
who have been released by border.

512
00:31:24,960 --> 00:31:27,960
Speaker 2: Patrol or various reasons.

513
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:31,680
Speaker 3: One of the issues we're dealing with now, and the

514
00:31:31,759 --> 00:31:35,079
Tribune has written about this too, is this rapid rise

515
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:38,599
and previeous corpus petitions that are overwhelming the federal court

516
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:44,680
system because El Paso has become sort of this major

517
00:31:45,000 --> 00:31:48,759
holding area. We have the largest ice detention facility in

518
00:31:48,799 --> 00:31:53,160
the country here and that's taken in a lot of

519
00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,839
people from Minnesota in the last month. Those people are

520
00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:02,240
filing previous corpus petitions seeking the release, largely with success.

521
00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:04,400
Both and I'll pass on some other areas of the

522
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:08,839
western District of Texas. So that's been the primary migration

523
00:32:08,960 --> 00:32:13,759
issue we're seeing. Again, if you're not a lawyer or

524
00:32:13,759 --> 00:32:17,519
you're not on the front lines of providing assistance to migrants,

525
00:32:17,519 --> 00:32:21,079
you're probably not aware of it. Or unless you're a

526
00:32:21,079 --> 00:32:23,359
loyal reader of El Paso Matters or Texts Tribute, maybe

527
00:32:23,359 --> 00:32:23,759
you're away.

528
00:32:25,240 --> 00:32:29,039
Speaker 2: But the issues kind of have receded further into the background.

529
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,440
Speaker 1: All right, Well, if you are not a loyal reader

530
00:32:32,440 --> 00:32:34,599
of l Paso Matters or Textas Tribute, you should be.

531
00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:38,960
It's elpasomatters dot org. Thank you, Bob, this has been

532
00:32:39,799 --> 00:32:43,440
really valuable. I appreciate your insights. I also want to

533
00:32:43,480 --> 00:32:47,519
say thank you to Robin Chris, our producers, and thank

534
00:32:47,559 --> 00:32:50,799
you to our sponsors. South By Southwest. Secure your badge

535
00:32:50,799 --> 00:32:55,960
again at SXSW dot com slash trip cast and also

536
00:32:56,079 --> 00:32:58,759
join us for the live trip cast on February twenty

537
00:32:58,759 --> 00:33:02,440
fourth at nine am Texas Tribune dot org slash Events.

538
00:33:02,599 --> 00:33:06,240
For that, Bob, it's been a great talking with you. Well,

539
00:33:06,839 --> 00:33:09,119
we'll be back next week for another trip cast.

540
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:23,720
Speaker 3: H