The Brownsville City Commission held its regular city meeting on Tuesday, May 16, 2023, and discussed and approved several items and issues.

The Commission approved two proclamations the first welcoming Avelo Airlines to Brownsville as the city’s newest airline. The second proclamation proclaiming May as National Bike Month.

The City Commission approved the following:
 The canvassing and approving of the votes on the May 6, 2023, municipal election and the official swearing-in of three newly elected city officials:

• Mayor John Cowen Jr.
• District 1 Commissioner Bryan L. Martinez
• District 2 Commissioner Linda C. Macias

The City Commission also discussed signs and billboards in the city. The discussions included a new set of provisions such as road types, zoning districts, and sign types. The sign types included billboards, monument signs, multi-tenant signs and poles and pylons.

Mayor John Cowen and Helen Ramirez, AICP, City Manager, issued a certificate of recognition to Odee Ann Leal, director of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, for receiving the Director’s Award from the U.S. Customs and Immigration and Enforcement.

The Commission also received an update on the migrant influx in Brownsville from Odee Ann Leal, who said the city continues to provide assistance to the migrants to help get them processed and transported out of the city as quickly as they can in a humanitarian way. She also said the city is seeing a decrease in the number of migrants and that the numbers at Camp Monument located at Fort Brown are being reported at zero.

The Commission also approved a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Brownsville and the Brownsville Independent School District that would allow the city to use the vacant Victoria Elementary School to register, process, and help safely transport the migrants out of the city, should the facility be necessary.