(Center Square) — Maricopa County has allocated $5 million for a Relocation Assistance Program to help nonprofits that help refugees.
Organizations such as the Community Service on Aging, Friendly House, International Rescue Commission, Lutheran Social Services, and the Somalia American United Council of Arizona each receive funding. Chicanos For La Cause gets the biggest slice of over $1.8 million to help families, according to a county news release.
The county said the funding came from the US Relief Plans Act, which went into effect May 1.
“People come to our community from all over the world, and if you’ve never been here before, it can be disorienting and scary,” supervisor Steve Gallardo said in a statement. “Maricopa County is fortunate to have many non-profit organizations that help refugees from other countries find housing, medical care, integrate and become assets across language barriers.”
It’s unclear if there’s a direct correlation, but it will be funded once Title 42 concludes on Thursday. This is expected to increase the number of migrants coming across the southern border. Some of these immigrants end up in Maricopa County and, like other parts of the state away from the border itself, may be considered refugees in some circumstances.
according to Arizona Refugee Resettlement Program Data show that the state will host nearly 6,000 refugees in the 2022 federal fiscal year, thousands of them from Afghanistan and Cuba.
