Senators Kirsten Cinema and Mark Kelly said the Biden administration was “deficit” in communities along the Southwest border and “willing” Congress by pumping millions of immigrant care workers into New York City. overturned,” he said.
Earlier this year, two Arizona senators joined senators from New Mexico and California in a move to secure $800 million for shelter and services programs. Administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the program funds agencies, including charities and local governments, to provide shelter to people detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and released while awaiting immigration results. Provide shelter, food and transportation.
“Communities in border areas across our state are on the front lines of the border crisis and we are committed to increasing shelter capacity, emergency services and transportation to alleviate the stress they face every day. We have worked hard to secure important resources to help us,” they wrote. “The Biden administration failed to provide assistance to border communities when they needed it most.”
The program will help CBP manage processing, prevent overcrowding at CBP short-term facilities, and be approved by Congress to assist border communities “bearing the brunt” of releases by border agents. Created. Moreover, while border communities should have received “the majority of the funding for shelter and services,” they have so far “received far less funding than East Coast cities such as New York City.”
In the first funding round, Arizona will receive approximately $45.4 million, plus an additional $23.9 million. California, on the other hand, received $44 million in its first funding round and will receive another $15 million. New Mexico received approximately $29 million. And nearly $57 million in grants have been awarded to Texas charities and local governments, with nearly $126 million currently planned.
“In contrast, New York City would receive approximately $30 million in the first allocation and $104.6 million in the second allocation. one-third,” the senators wrote.
June 5, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced The faith-based shelter program is designed to shelter 1,000 people across about 50 chapels, and the city said it continues to care for about 46,000 people.
New York City has helped 72,000 asylum seekers since last spring, and the city has spent more than $1.2 billion, with costs expected to reach $4.3 billion by June 2024. At current spending rates, this is enough money to cover the costs of asylum seekers for just five days,” the mayor’s office said.
“Mayor Adams has repeatedly called on the federal government to provide multiple assistance, including expedited work permits for asylum seekers, a nationwide decompression strategy, increased funding for crisis management, and meaningful immigration reform. ”
During the influx of immigrant families under the Trump administration in mid-2019, Congress authorized FEMA to create a new humanitarian effort under its long-running Emergency Food and Shelter Program. In 2021, the program was expanded under the Biden administration, with a $110 million remittance specifically for immigration assistance under the EFSP as part of the American Relief Plan. This year, Congress funneled funds into migrant assistance programs through the Shelter and Services Program (SSP) to help migrants assist communities after they are liberated.
Cinema said in mid-May that the funding was part of December’s Omnibus bill and was part of a “very large-scale battle over funding for this type of relief effort.”
Once an immigrant is detained by CBP, whether it has sought asylum at a border crossing or illegally crossed the border to seek asylum, it will be subject to criminal background checks and then will be required to enter the country with U.S. citizenship. A credible fear interview is conducted by the Director. Immigration determines whether you are eligible for protection under U.S. law. If they manage to overcome this first hurdle, they will be released by their sponsors, but the case will continue through the immigration system, where a judge will finally decide they are eligible for asylum.
Pima County alone has received $45.7 million under a series of federal programs administered by FEMA and will receive another $19 million in grants later this year, county officials said. Since 2019, Pima County has partnered with the City of Tucson toOver 137,000 people protected Approximately 22,000 people will be included in the first three months of 2023.
Pima County Deputy Commissioner Dr. Francisco Garcia explained the need for funding at a Senate subcommittee hearing, stating that the county will provide approximately $1 million to cinema and Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma. He said the money was “the key to everything” as he spent it. We support immigrants every month.
In 2019, he said the county “thought this was temporary and the county’s involvement was only for a month or two.”
“Just four years later, Pima County is still deeply involved in helping thousands of asylum seekers receive shelter, food, health screenings and transportation each month,” Garcia said.
“The most frequently asked question in the county is why Pima County is supporting local charities with this shelter care and transportation assistance,” he said. “Personally, for me, and for many of our county leaders, the answer is that it is the right and humane thing to do. Because it is the local government responsible for providing it.” Thousands of people with limited resources and English proficiency find themselves in a strange country with little food, little money, no place to sleep and no transport. I’m thinking about how to get to the area of Receiving medical care as needed is detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of our county. ”
“Without support, they will probably stay for days. With the summer heat approaching, it is unacceptable to leave these people alone to suffer and struggle in our communities.” said Garcia.
As Title 42 ended in mid-May, the number of people crossing the US border accelerated.
Title 42, an abbreviation for expanded powers under U.S. law, was first enacted by the Trump administration in March 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Over the past three years, Title 42 has been used to expel thousands of people from the state. The US also includes asylum seekers who have traveled to countries with high numbers of COVID-19 cases. The policy was implemented to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 to historically narrow and often unsanitary border facilities, where officials processed people on site and then “countries of last transit” ( almost without exception to Mexico). .
Border agents encountered 5,147 people across the southwestern border on April 16, with 14,070 detained, according to CBP data released as part of the lawsuit. As the week progressed, the number of people in custody slowly increased as authorities struggled to move people. By the end of the week, agencies had detained 18,270 of her, but agencies had managed to release people within an average of 67 hours.
The number of people peaked on May 9, when border guards encountered 10,640 people, while authorities detained 26,924 people. The situation accelerated further, as Title 42 was set to expire just before 9:00 pm on May 11, and authorities detained 28,241 of him.
DHS officials had warned weeks before the policy was to end that border agents could face up to 10,000 checks per day, but in early June, agency data showed It was shown that “illegal immigration between ports of entry” has decreased by more than 70% since May 11. And overall, the number of encounters he had was less than 4,000 per day. This includes more than 1,000 of her who sought asylum in the United States through the CBPOne application, and more than 11,500 of her who entered the United States through credible fear interviews.
The New York City Office of Management and Budget will receive more than $104 million in funding in its next funding round this year, according to FEMA data. This represents almost 36% of the total $291 million available to the community under the SSP.
Pima County will receive just over $8.4 million, while the Phoenix-based charity Global Hunger Ecumenical Task Force, which manages aid to Maricopa, Cochise, Yuma Counties and Mesa, Arizona, will receive just $1,550. million dollars.according to the fiscal year Data from FEMA.
As Title 42 was coming to an end, Pima County was “close to the brink” of leaving asylum seekers without shelter on the streets of Tucson just as Title 42 expired, but the county’s protection The “heroic work” of staff and volunteers who are part of the network prevented this. Officials said it was happening. An intricate protection network and constant coordination ensured that every migrant released into the county had a place to go, they said at a May conference. Jan Rescher, Pima County Administrator, said FEMA-supported funding will allow the county to continue the effort.
The Department of Homeland Security, which manages FEMA and CBP, announced new spending on Monday, reporting that the National Commission for Emergency Food and Shelter Programs has allocated more than $400 million to help migrant-supporting communities across the United States. of which $332.5 million will be donated. 35 charities and local governments after May 5.
Cinema, who left the Democratic Party to become an independent after facing a preliminary challenge from Rep. He repeatedly called it “unfair treatment.” crisis. ”
In early April, she traveled to Naco, Arizona, with four Republicans, including freshman Rep. Juan Ciscomani, to meet Cochise County Sheriff Mark Danells and National Border Patrol Council Vice President Al Del Cueto. I met with Mr. This is representative of many border guards and is intended for “line tours”.
Days before the end of Title 42, she again called the influx a “crisis” in a meeting with officials from Pima County, Nogales and Catholic Community Services. This is the result of “the failure of the federal government to prepare for the inevitable and the failure of Washington to put politics aside to produce lasting results for Arizona communities,” she said. said.
Cinema and other senators argued that the Biden administration “overturned the will of Congress” by sending large sums of money to New York.
“Instead of prioritizing the funding of shelter and service programs in the border areas, which was primarily intended by Congress, we gave New York City more than $100 million, without transparency or oversight of how funding levels are determined. ‘, they wrote. “This failure jeopardizes the future of this program and undermines our communities’ ability to secure our borders, keep our communities safe, and ensure the fair and humane treatment of migrants.” they said.
