Las Cruces may approve another $500K for migrants

LAS CRUCES — At its Monday meeting, the Las Cruces City Council will consider allocating another $500,000 to provide assistance to asylum applicants released by the U.S. Border Patrol.

Since April, the city has been leasing the former U.S. Army Reserve center on Brown Road and staffing it as a drop-off location and emergency shelter for migrants who are legally present in the United States while their claims are in process.

Since the Border Patrol began releasing migrants applying for asylum from numerous Central American countries, the city said over 1,000 individuals have been released in Las Cruces each week, the total exceeding 15,000 in mid-July. Staff say there is no end of the daily arrivals in sight.

The migrants are processed at the center and provided with donated clothing or other supplies as needed, with meals and office assistance available to assist families making travel arrangements to stay with relatives or host families in the United States. Cots are also available for overnight stays, and volunteers and church organizations have coordinated travel to larger shelter and processing centers in El Paso and other cities.

In April, councilors transferred $500,000 from the Telshor fund (the city’s share of lease payments from operations of Memorial Medical Center) to cover the expenses of providing the services through the remainder of the fiscal year, without cutting spending elsewhere.

The additional half-million, to be taken again from the Telshor fund, is intended to cover the costs of providing the shelter into September, while the city seeks $30 million in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.