eBay has amazing daily deals


Arizona Border County Faces Massive Surge in Homeless Migrants


1 week ago 20
-->

A migrant shelter's impending closure in Arizona is sparking fears that asylum seekers with no place to go could potentially contribute towards a homelessness problem in the state.

The Casa Alitas shelter in Tucson, located in Pima County and about a one-hour drive from the U.S.-Mexico border, is expected to stop most operations in a couple weeks due to a lack of federal funding combined with not enough local dollars available to subsidize the more than 130,000 legally processed asylum seekers released by the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector into Cochise, Santa Cruz and Pima counties since September 1, 2023, officials say.

Last week, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, requested $752 million in federal funding to keep such services afloat. In a letter addressed to the Senate and House Appropriations Committees, she suggested the sum be paid to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Shelter and Services Program, with the funding requested from the Homeland Security appropriations bill.

Hobbs wrote that services in her state were "on the brink of operational limitations," and that without the funding "critical services could be compromised."

Pima County, like the Democratic-run sanctuary cities of Chicago, New York City and Denver, is on the frontlines of dealing with an influx of migrants. As of February 29, the county has received more than 400,000 arrivals of individuals and families seeking asylum since 2019.

Numbers hovered around 20,300 as of August 2023 before escalating to nearly 26,900 the following month and topping out at approximately 40,000 in December, according to data provided to Newsweek by the county.

Illegal immigration, meanwhile, is among the top issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with polls showing that voters have doubts about President Joe Biden's handling of the situation, on which former President Donald Trump has promised tougher action. There were more than 2.4 million encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border during the 2023 fiscal year, up from roughly 1.7 million in 2021, according to CBP data.

Jan Lesher, county administrator of Pima County, wrote in a letter last month that reality set in regarding the likelihood of not receiving any additional funding from the federal government in the near future.

Arizona Migrants
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are seen with immigrants at a field processing center near the U.S.-Mexico border on December 8, 2023, in Lukeville, Arizona. A shelter in the state is shutting down soon... John Moore/Getty Images

But the community will still be affected regardless, she warned, notably the city of Tucson as legally processed asylum seekers released by CBP daily will likely last at least another year.

"There is already a difficult homeless problem in Pima County that we are working tirelessly to solve or mitigate," Lesher wrote. "What we are about to experience with street releases is homelessness on steroids.

"But every dollar spent helping legally processed asylum seekers move on to their destination cities will be a dollar we can't spend on county residents who are struggling financially to afford adequate housing, or who are suffering from mental illness or drug and alcohol addiction."

On Monday, a Pima County spokesperson referred Newsweek to Lesher's letter and countywide data on migrants. Newsweek also reached out to Tucson officials and the Casa Alitas shelter via email for comment.

In response, Lesher has instructed local agencies and divisions to culminate contracts and logistical coordination with shelters as part of a "full stop" going into effect on March 31.

The county's shelter services contractor, Catholic Community Services (CCS), was also notified that 30 members of its shelter support staff would no longer be employed as of that date.

"I want to be very prudent and careful that we don't try to stretch sheltering operations to the last dollar, and then days or weeks later have unexpected reimbursable expenses submitted by contractors that we will need to pay despite no further available funds," Lesher wrote. "The end of federal funding and the ramping down of the complex sheltering and transportation assistance system means there will be unsheltered releases in Tucson beginning as early as April 1."

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, a Democrat, and Supervisor Adelita Grijalva of District 5 in Tucson, wrote an op-ed in the Arizona Daily Star in January warning about a "humanitarian crisis" emanating from the shriveling of federal funds.

"Neither the county nor the city can afford to use local tax dollars to continue safely assisting asylum seekers on their journey once federal funds are exhausted; this is a federal responsibility," they wrote. "It's important that the public, members of Congress and President Biden understand the devastating implications of the loss of this federal funding."

Even without federal funding, they warn that federal Border Patrol will still release 500 or more persons per day in Tucson, along with more rural areas like Nogales and Douglas that lack the resources of larger communities.

"Who will help these asylum seekers with language barriers make flight or bus reservations? Where will they get food and water? Where will they go the bathroom? Where will they sleep? As the 500 released today struggle to figure out how to move on, they will be joined by another 500 tomorrow," they said.

Casa Alitas began as a church effort in 2014 to help migrants typically from Mexico, Guatemala and other Latin American countries, though also serving individuals from West Africa, India and elsewhere, Reuters reported. By 2023, they had served more than 180,000 asylum seekers, mostly families, legally allowed to stay in the U.S. due to their cases still being adjudicated.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Read Entire Article