Cities sorely need money to handle immigration surges. They got less from Congress.
In the event that Catholic Charities of San Antonio does not get additional government financing in the near future for the purpose of providing assistance to asylum-seekers, the organization will be forced to close its Migrant Resource Center during the evening and nighttime hours. This may result in busloads of recently arrived immigrants being left on the streets.
During the previous fiscal year, the nonprofit organization was awarded $55 million from a program run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This money was utilized to give more than 220,000 individuals with temporary housing, food and clothes, legal services, counseling, and transportation to their eventual destination. Due to the fact that it only has $5.7 million left, the organization is contemplating reducing the hours of operation of the welcome center in the next weeks in order to maintain its capacity to assist migrants during the day for the remainder of the year.
Nearly six months into the fiscal year, Congress reached a decision last month to approve the funding level for the Shelter and Services Program of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in the federal spending package for the fiscal year 2024. Numerous municipalities, counties, and states around the country have made repeated requests to the federal government for increased funding in order to deal with the surge of migrants entering the United States. In addition, the administration of Vice President Joe Biden urged lawmakers to inject an additional $600 million into the program in the previous year. Since the latter half of the year 2023, the program has been unable to continue providing any extra financial help.
On the other hand, lawmakers reduced the budget for the program to $650 million, which is a decrease of roughly 20% from the previous year. No responses were received from the House or Senate appropriations committees in response to requests for comment.
Joaquin Castro, a Democrat who represents San Antonio in the House of Representatives, stated that immigration is a responsibility of the federal government.
According to a statement that he provided to CNN, “Cities require more assistance, not less.” “With the assistance of funding from the Shelter and Services Program (SSP), Catholic Charities and other organizations in my city of San Antonio have been able to provide fundamental migrant services without putting a pressure on the resources available in the area. People who are seeking asylum are taking refuge from some of the most heinous acts of brutality and persecution that we can conceive of, and nobody wants to see them sleeping on the streets. Antonio Fernandez, the chief executive officer of the San Antonio charity, flew to Washington, District of Columbia, at the beginning of April in order to petition the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for additional financing. The charity is still waiting to hear how much funding it may receive for this fiscal year. The nonprofit organization anticipates that it will be need to cut the number of services it provides and maybe reduce the number of employees even if the funds arrive in time to keep the center open twenty-four hours a day. Because of this, it is quite possible that the processing of new arrivals would take longer, which might put the safety of the hundreds of people who are temporarily residing at the welcome center in jeopardy.
Fernandez stated that “we are unable to function in the same manner as we did the previous year,” and he went on to say that he intends to request assistance from the city of San Antonio. We will be forced to reduce the number of services we provide even if we are successful in obtaining the funds. It is going to be a challenging circumstance if there is a significant increase in the number of immigrants.
At this time, when the number of migrants at the border between the United States and Mexico is at or near record levels, local governments and counties are trying to find out how they will deal with the drop in funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). After being subjected to a comprehensive screening process, migrants are freed from federal detention. They then move to immigration court proceedings, where an immigration judge decides whether or not they are permitted to remain in the United States or if they will be deported.
Atlanta, Chicago, New York City, Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Laredo, Texas were among the cities that received assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) during the fiscal year 2023. In addition, it was distributed to a number of counties, including Pima County, Arizona, and Riverside County, California, as well as a large number of religious and charitable organizations, such as Catholic Charities in a number of cities, a number of food banks, and the United Way in a number of different places, amongst others.
The Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, has been busing people to Democratic-led towns in the north over the past few years, which is one of the reasons why municipalities and states all across the United States are now affected.
A bipartisan border pact that would have given the president more power to restrict illegal migrant crossings at the southern border is being blocked by Republicans in the Senate, which is another reason why the funding cut is occurring at this time.
According to the Department of Homeland Security, which is in charge of supervision of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will publish additional material in the coming weeks so that municipalities and organizations can apply for the $650 million pot of funding. However, this won’t be sufficient.
According to a representative for the Department of Homeland Security who talked with CNN, “not all requests can be fulfilled due to the substantial demand that exceeds the limited SSP program funding authorized by Congress.” It is for this reason that we continue to urge Congress to approve the bipartisan border security agreement, which would, among other things, give an additional $1.4 billion in financing for the SSP.
Difficult decisions to make
According to Mark Ritacco, chief government affairs officer at the National Association of Counties, the choice made by lawmakers to reduce the budget is not a response to the demand.
“The reduced appropriations for SSP grants will likely require counties to divert resources from other programs,” he added, pointing out that counties provide a variety of services, including police enforcement, emergency services, health care, parks, and sanitation, among other things.
The mayor of Mesa, Arizona, John Giles, is getting ready to seek churches and charitable organizations in his community for assistance in supporting the busloads of migrants who are left off by the United States Customs and Border Protection on their route to other areas. It will be necessary for the city to assess its alternatives, which may include drawing from its general revenue or reducing the amount of aid it offers to people seeking refuge.
“The notion that in any way it makes sense to decrease funding in time of crisis is just nonsensical,” said Giles, who is the chair of the immigration reform task committee for the United States Conference of Mayors. “The answer that we will turn our backs on the problem is something that I simply cannot conceive of. However, it would appear that this is the course of action that the federal government is urging us to take.
Mayor Ron Nirenberg of San Antonio stated that he has been advocating for an increase in the amount of money allocated to assist migrants, rather than a decrease. In March, when President Joe Biden was in Texas, he submitted a letter to San Antonio’s congressional delegation and the Department of Homeland Security requesting an additional $57.5 million for the Migrant Resource Center. He also urged President Biden for additional funds during the president’s visit to Texas. In addition, the city does not yet have any information regarding the number of migrants who will pass through San Antonio or the amount of money that it will get from the FEMA program. The authorities have started talking about alternative measures in the event that the help does not meet the requirements.
In his statement, Nirenberg stated, “We will seek to use federal funds rather than dip into local funds that pay for police, firefighters, and our streets.” He also mentioned that the Covid-19 relief funds are one possibility that might be considered.