Feds step in to bail out migrant center
$650 million in spending package will keep San Antonio facility open beyond September
San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center, which had been in danger of running out of money next fall, got a lifeline when President Joe Biden on Saturday signed a $1.2 trillion funding package passed by Congress.
The bill, which averted a partial government shutdown, opened up millions of dollars for San Antonio for migrant assistance. That could help the city keep the Centro de Bienvenida, commonly referred to as the Migrant Resource Center, open beyond September.
“The bill is an acknowledgment that more federal resources are needed to continue assisting local communities,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a statement. “Our nation needs a comprehensive overhaul of its immigration laws, but the budget deal will enable local officials to maintain public safety while compassionately helping asylum seekers get to their destinations.” Nirenberg had been alerting congressional leaders for months about what would happen if the center had to close.
“If we cannot continue current operations, we will be faced with the reality of having thousands of migrants wandering the streets and neighborhoods of the City which will unfortunately bolster anti-immigrant sentiments often associated with influx,” he wrote in a Dec. 12 letter to U.S. Rep Henry Cuellar, D-laredo.
Earlier this month, after Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan border deal that included migrant assistance for cities, San Antonio officials said they only had enough Federal Emergency Management Agency funds to cover their costs of running the facility through Sep
tember.
The funding package approved this weekend includes $650 million for FEMA’S Shelter and Services Program for fiscal year 2024, which runs through September. That’s down $150 million from what Congress allocated for the previous year.
“While we fought for more money, we had to work against Republicans who wanted to zero out funding for the program entirely, which would have devastated nonprofits like Catholic Charities in San Antonio,” Cuellar said in a news release.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio handles the day-to-day operations of the Migrant Resource Center under a contract with the city.
The city and the religious nonprofit organization will have to apply for the federal dollars for migrant assistance.
Nirenberg told Cuellar in December that the city needed $3 million and Catholic Charities requires $54.5 million to keep the center open through December.
The center opened in summer 2022, and the city pays for its lease and security and janitorial costs. The city also transports asylum-seekers from the San Pedro Avenue site to San Antonio International Airport or the city-run Airport Transfer Center, which opened last May as a temporary waiting area to alleviate overcrowding at the Migrant Resource Center.
The facility has room for 700 people.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio CEO Antonio Fernandez was not available for an interview.
Last week, asylum-seekers told the San Antonio Expressnews that Catholic Charities was not offering travel assistance, leaving them to rely on family and friends for financial help. Previously, the organization purchased bus tickets and flights for people who had no means of paying for this travel on their own and who lacked family support.
A Venezuelan man had spent 10 nights at the center, and still didn’t know when his brother would be able to afford a ticket for him to New York City.
Since January 2021, more than 605,000 asylum-seekers have passed through San Antonio after crossing the border. This month alone, 3,681 people have sought assistance or temporary shelter at the Migrant Resource Center, according to city data.