Gov. Greg Abbott: El Paso Phase 2 Reopening Will Be Delayed

Today was supposed to be the big day in the second phase of reopening Texas according to Governor Greg Abbott's plan to restart the state's economy. Most of Texas will be allowed to reopen under the second phase but El Paso and Amarillo will not.

Last week, El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego and other local elected officials wrote a letter to ask that our county be left off the reopen list because of spiking cases and the unique makeup of our region. The leaders who signed the letter told Abbott that the proximity of Juarez, Las Cruces, and El Paso is something that needs to be taken into account before allowing even more businesses to reopen. Samaniego said that if the phase 2 reopening in El Paso County wasn't going to come from the governor's office, he might have to put stricter measures into place himself.

As of Sunday, May 18, there was no word from the governor's office about slowing his roll on the reopening of El Paso, but this afternoon at a press conference, the governor said that we will be delayed a week before phase 2 can happen in El Paso.

In his press conference, Abbott said that the reason he is putting a hold on phase 2 in El Paso County is because our "hospital capacity too close for comfort at this time." He said instead of phase two beginning at the end of the week for most of Texas, we will instead have to wait for phase two for one more week, and everything that will open later this week in other counties will open on May 29 in El Paso County.

You can click here for the complete list and dates that businesses will reopen throughout Texas, but remember those dates will be a week later for El Paso County.

I think that City and County officials should be angry that their letter was not answered by the governor and he instead chose to show exactly how he feels about out county by waiting until this afternoon to address our concerns. El Paso has historically been looked on as an unimportant part of the state but the governor's lack of respect for our elected officials really showed today and it is something that he should be called out on by our elected officials.