McAllen and Hidalgo County are looking to revive an immigrant staging and sleeping area at Anzalduas Park, as it’s been done before. This time, it comes as Title 42 is set to end. 

Valley officials met with Border Patrol officials on Tuesday to discuss plans for the end pf the public health policy that allowed migrants to be turned away at the border due to Covid concerns.

Border Patrol officials said the latest meeting was the sixth one in recent weeks to plan getting ready for the expected migrant surge.

Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez attended the meeting, and said the county is working to find an area to stage migrants before and after border patrol processing.

“Our thinking today is trying to provide a holding facility where they release some of these immigrants to transport them out of this area, is basically the role that we're going to be taking,” Cortez explained.

The first and primary area Hidalgo County officials have in mind is Anzalduas Park, located in Mission.

The park has a history of being used as a place to house the migrants as civilians, not in detention, while their next steps are worked out.

The city of McAllen is prepping the park, which has the capacity to hold 5,000 people, according to Cortez.

Cortez added that the staging area would be operated by the county.

“What we want to do is lend them some of our facilities for this period,” Cortez said. “It'll be a short time effort here, because I think we're going to have an influx of them, and then it's going to wind down.”

Cortez said he's looking into using other areas in the county for migrants as well, but wasn’t ready to say which areas are being considered.

In the city of Brownsville, where crossings already reached peaks of more than 2,000 per day, officials said they’ve working with federal officials and nonprofit organizations to keep the flow of migrants organized.

“They've done a very good job in handling the migrant situation up until this point, so we'll be working in collaboration with the city and assisting them in whatever needs they may have,” Cameron County Judge Eddie Trevino Jr. said.

Officials continue to wait to see what happens next.