Tucson, Pima County seek new plan for asylum seekers by April 1
TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - Both Tucson and Pima County are wrestling with how to deal with the cutoff of federal funds that financed programs to assist asylum seekers for the past five years.
According to Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, they just passed the $70 million threshold.
The county is now spending $1 million a week to support the effort and the 1,000 asylum seekers who are processed by Border Patrol daily. They are dropped off at prearranged points once processed.
More border coverage
- Border Patrol releases hundreds of migrants at a bus stop after San Diego runs out of aid money
- Former Border Patrol agent found not guilty of sexual assault
- Bisbee, Douglas and Nogales mayors react to end of federal funding for migrants
- Southern Arizona leaders scrambling after rejected immigration bill
- Biden considering new executive action to restrict asylum at the border, sources say
“Keeping a hundred folks off the street is different than a thousand folks everyday,” said Tucson City Manager Michael Ortega. “So I am sounding the alarm”.
This is not the first time the city or county have sounded the alarm about potential street releases. But it is the first time it’s done so facing a very real prospect of running out of federal funding.
“It’s about a million dollars a week and so in a short period of time that could be catastrophic for the city of Tucson and for the region,” he said.
When the city started assisting migrants in 2014, it was maybe 15 or 20 a day. When it moved operations into the Benedictine Monastery, it increased to a hundred a day and maybe 200. Now it’s 1,000, sometimes as many as 1,500.
Since immigration is a federal responsibility, the solution some feel, is to dump it back into the feds’ hands.
“Why not at a federal facility? Why not the federal courthouse? Why not in front of the federal building, or the biggest federal facility in Tucson, Davis Monthan Air Force Base where i think they could accommodate that many people and where border patrol has their headquarters,” said Ward 3 Councilman Kevin Dahl.
For security reasons, Davis-Monthan is likely untenable but trying to find a facility large enough to replace the warehouse on Drexel, where they are now being housed, is near impossible.
Just the utilities are $250,000 a month but trying to transport a thousand people a day from the border is likely the biggest expense.
“Transportation is a huge cost in this,” said Ward 6 Councilmember Steve Kozachik. “Getting people on buses from Tucson, Cochise County, Santa Cruz County up to Phoenix, getting them to their destinations from whether it’s Sky Harbor, Tucson International or the Greyhound bus depot, this all costs money.”
Just bussing them to Phoenix, bypassing Tucson altogether, is likely not an option either, although it has been suggested.
Putting them in Reid Park near Tucson’s city center is not viable either but has been broached.
They may get a little help from the latest numbers.
The numbers have fallen from 80,184 in December to 50,565 in January, according to numbers released by CBP. February is trending down slightly in the first two weeks of the month. There were 11,900 the week of Feb. 16 according to CBP reports.
Both city and county leaders said they will have a plan in place by the time the money runs out on April 1, but at this time, are not sure what the plan will look like.
Be sure to subscribe to the 13 News YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@13newskold
Copyright 2024 13 News. All rights reserved.
