Migrant centres in dire straits as funding runs out
AN ARIZONA migrant shelter that has housed thousands of asylum seekers plans to halt most operations in two weeks when funding from Washington runs out, a problem for towns along the border where officials fear a surge in homelessness and extra costs.
Arizona’s Pima County, which borders Mexico, has said that at the end of the month its contracts must stop with Tucson’s Casa Alitas shelter and services that transport migrants north from the border cities of Nogales, Douglas and Lukeville.
Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said the county cannot afford the roughly $1 million (about R19m) a week that previously would have been covered by federal funds. The amount “is not something that can be easily absorbed into a Pima County budget.”
Funding predicaments similar to Pima County’s are playing out in other border regions and far-away cities like New York City, Chicago and Denver.
As in Tucson, other local governments anticipate that without federal dollars, communities will face many more migrants living on their streets, greater demands on police, hospitals and sanitation services. Pima County, which since 2019 has received over 400 000 migrants processed by US border authorities, estimated 400 to 1 000 migrants with nowhere to stay could start arriving daily in Tucson in April.
Congress faces a Friday deadline to fund the US Department of Homeland Security, which pays for migrant services, along with other federal agencies.
Current money could be temporarily extended as a stop-gap measure to keep DHS and other agencies running.
But additional funding for the shelter and transport services has been caught in broader political battles about illegal migration and government spending, and Congress is at an impasse, largely due to election-year politics. Immigration is among the top three concerns for voting-age Americans, and Arizona is an election battleground state that could help decide control of the White House and US Senate.
President Joe Biden, a Democrat running against Republican former president Donald Trump for re-election on November 5, has tried to appeal simultaneously to the Democratic base in favour of protecting asylum seekers while also courting other voters who want to reduce the number of illegal crossings from Mexico.
Biden has grappled with record numbers of such migrants since he took office in 2021.
In recent months, Biden has toughened his stance, blaming Republicans for opposing additional border security funding and legislation.
Republicans counter that Biden should reinstate restrictive Trump policies and end new legal entry programmes before Congress devotes more money to border security.
Some migrants come from Mexico, Guatemala and other Latin American countries, but recently they have come from West Africa, India and elsewhere.