A Pima County-run program that provides transportation, food, medical care and temporary shelter to asylum seekers released into the United States could end by April. This is because the federal funding that supported it has dried up.

Asylum seekers processed along the Arizona border often travel about 48 hours to come to Tucson. The Pima County program has been in place since his 2019 year, and services are provided by Catholic Community Services. This program receives federal funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

County Governor Jean Lescher said the county currently sees an average of about 1,000 asylum seekers and immigrants a day, about half of whom are from Santa Cruz and Cochise counties. It costs about $1 million a week to provide the service, or about $4 million a month.

“People will come back and say we've allocated another $2 million, we've allocated another million. And with all due respect, we certainly value those dollars… That’s another week,” she said at the Feb. 20 board meeting. Supervisors meeting.

Lesher said the latest round of funding is expected to be exhausted by March 31 as negotiations over border funding continue to stall in Congress.

a memo The countywide program is scheduled to end by the end of March, and without those services, Tucson could begin releasing migrants on the streets starting April 1, Lesher wrote in a letter this month. Says. The memo also offers options for more minimal measures. But he cautions against using money from the county's general fund to do that.