Local governments at U.S. border weigh using taxpayer funds to help migrant families

TUCSON — The space the Kino Events Center occupies once was a local YMCA, which closed about two years ago.

A mural of brightly colored children's faces overlooks its spacious gymnasium. 

The court is lined with numbered green cots, 119 total, provided by the Salvation Army. Each has a towel neatly folded on top.

All are empty at the moment, but that could change at a moment's notice, and so the shelter remains open and fully staffed, just in case.

The number of asylum-seeking families that federal officials are releasing in Tucson has been fluctuating greatly. In the past few weeks, they've overwhelmed the city's existing network of permanent and temporary shelters run by area nonprofits. 

As a result, Tucson and Pima County officials were forced to open temporary shelters to house an overflow of families arriving to the city.  

Those are among the latest examples of local governments along the U.S.-Mexico border stepping in to fill a void in order to address an issue they considered to be the responsibility of the federal government.

"We've got a broken federal policy. I don't think that's a secret to anybody," Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said.

Roy Rodriguez, the city manager of McAllen, Texas, put it more bluntly.

"We need the federal government to take over this operation," he said.

As nonprofits struggle to house and care for the number of families released border-wide, city, county and even state governments are starting to take a greater, more direct role in the humanitarian response to their arrival in their communities.

But the involvement of local governments at the U.S.-Mexico border has varied from state to state.

It ranges from a coordinating role in cities such as San Diego, to more proactive efforts in cities like McAllen or Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Las Cruces recently set aside $500,000 to help care for migrant families, the most of any local government.

But the move was met with immediate backlash from angry residents, illustrating the challenges and balancing act many of these border communities must face: how to cope with the sustained release of migrant families in their area, while providing some much-needed relief and assistance to overstretched nonprofits bearing the brunt of the humanitarian response.

'Little choice but to take a leading role'

In the past five months, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has released 153,000 migrants traveling as families into border communities in the U.S. That doesn't include thousands of other families that Border Patrol has been releasing directly in Texas and Arizona.

South Texas has had the largest numbers of families released to date. According to its statistics, ICE has released 62,200 migrants in five months in this area. In mid-March, Border Patrol officials in the Rio Grande Valley also began directly releasing migrants. 

McAllen is the main transportation hub, with the only migrant shelter in the region. For the past month, border officials there have been releasing up to 1,000 migrants each day. 

McAllen has had little choice but to take a leading role, working directly with nonprofit groups and spending thousands of its taxpayer dollars along the way.

The city owns the bus station where migrants are dropped off and has been transporting the migrants on charter buses to and from the station to the migrant shelter, run by Catholic Charities, at the cost of between $750 to $1,250 per day, according to invoices provided by the city.

That's on top of several full-time city employees assigned to the site around the clock. Those employees include an incident commander, traffic control, police officers and even a fire watch inspector, Rodriguez, the McAllen city manager, said.

Their response carries a hefty price tag.

"We've got a tally going, but I couldn't give you a number right now," Rodriguez said. "I can tell you that easily it's $1,500 a day, so we're looking looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $45,000 to $50,000 a month."

So far the city has been able to handle the expenses because they're in a strong financial position, he added. But that doesn't mean they should. And they're learning from past experience to avoid footing the entire bill.

During a surge in the arrival of thousands of unaccompanied minors that started in 2014, Rodriguez said the city submitted $580,000 in reimbursements to the federal government. They ended up getting back only $140,000. 

This time, they're not waiting to ask for reimbursement.

"We are talking to our congressman now, we're talking to our U.S. senators now, about what were experiencing because we don't want anybody to be surprised," Rodriguez said. "We're hoping that they provide in their budget money for reimbursement that is more readily available than they were at that time."

'A demand on our resources' 

Along other parts of the border, such as El Paso, the city and county governments are coordinating closely, but still working mainly with local nonprofits, to cope with the release of migrant families in the area. 

Ruben Garcia, the director of the Annunciation House, a faith-based group that runs a shelter in El Paso, said border officials have also been releasing about 1,000 migrants here each day.

As in McAllen, this includes migrant families released by ICE as well as Border Patrol.

Last week, Annunciation House opened a new 125,000 square foot, 500-bed shelter inside a former warehouse. It has the capacity to house up to 1,500 migrants if needed, Garcia added. 

Dee Margo, the mayor of El Paso, said the city helped find the former warehouse. They've also helped with transportation needs, especially for migrants dropped off at bus stations. But they've had limited options financially so far, he added.

Earlier this year, the municipal and county governments allocated $20,000 each, which will be matched by nonprofits, to fund a volunteer coordinator position to help the Annunciation House.

"That's the extent of the real dollar value that I can quantify," he said. "The rest of it, we're still trying to figure out what have we spending for this, and I don't have a definitive number."

Betsy Keller, the chief administrator for El Paso County, said county officials have stepped in to help Annunciation House with meals or transportation needs at times when its resources have been maxed out. 

There's concern that if the release of migrant families continues this way for sustained periods, donors and volunteers could eventually dry up, leaving local governments to fill the gap. 

"It's definitely a demand on our resources and our community," Keller said. "And while El Paso is a very generous and responsive community, it's definitely something that we'll have to address ... and come up with a plan to be responsive in a longer term sense."

California government pledged $5 million 

While all border communities have struggled with the release of migrant families, cities along the Arizona and Texas borders have had little support from their state governments. 

That's not the case in California, where the state has pledged $5 million in immediate emergency funding this year to boost nonprofits working with newly released families.

"The state from the very beginning was there, and to this day, the state is the most significant funder," said Michael Hopkins, the CEO for Jewish Family Service, which operates the main migrant shelter in San Diego. They've helped about 12,000 migrants since October.

“They sent down a team of staff," he added. "Early in the days, there were upwards of 15 state workers who helped us run the shelter."

To date, Jewish Family Services and the San Diego Rapid Response Network, a collective of migrant aid nonprofits in southern California, have already received $2.5 million. And they could get up to $7 million more in the next fiscal year's budget, Hopkins said.

California's support has lessened the burden on local governments, although they're still actively involved in the response.

In January, after nonprofits struggled to find a place to house large numbers of migrants, San Diego County supervisors voted to lease an unused county court building to them until December for $1.

The San Diego mayor's office helped coordinate weekly meetings to get things going. That has eventually turned into a formal working group that meets on a monthly basis. 

"All of this came together because we sat down, talked about what the needs were for the region, and what areas we’re all responsible for or fall within our jurisdiction, even though immigration falls outside any of our jurisdiction," said Denice Garcia, San Diego's director for international affairs.

City and county health departments in San Diego and other areas along the border are working with nonprofits to provide health services and screenings to newly released migrants, including vaccinations, to prevent the spread of communicable diseases.

For example, county officials have done more than 9,800 health screenings in San Diego since late December, leading to more than 1,000 diagnoses. The two most common were lice and scabies, according to information provided by San Diego County's Health and Human Services Agency.

Dr. Francisco Garcia, Pima County's assistant county administrator for health services, said the kind of issues they see with migrant families are what they typically would see in other young populations. 

He blasted Border Patrol officials in Yuma for erroneously claiming earlier this month that an 8-year-old Guatemalan girl had measles, raising concern nationwide. The agency released a correction a few hours later saying the girl had strep throat, not measles. 

"There has not been a single case of measles that I'm aware of since I've been tracking this that has crossed the southern border," Garcia said.

"Yes, we've had chickenpox and chickenpox is not a vaccine. Varicella is not a vaccine that is commonly used in the developing world, so I'm not surprised that we've had cases of chickenpox," he said. "By and large, these people are relatively well."

Push back from border community residents

The financial investments made by city, county and state governments are not without criticism, especially given the contentious nature of the topic and the polarity in the debate over immigration.

On April 25, the Las Cruces City Council unanimously passed a resolution setting aside $500,000 to help the city pay for overtime and other expenses related to its response to the migrant family releases.

That's in addition to $75,000 the council allocated the week before to area nonprofits housing the migrants dropped off in Las Cruces.

"This is an issue that the federal government put on our lap," Las Cruces Mayor Ken Miyagishima said. "We either deal with it in a humane and prudent manner ... (because) you don't want them dropped off at 2 o'clock in the morning and wandering around the streets."

The special meeting reflected the opposition Las Cruces and other border communities are facing and will continue to face as they weigh allocating additional resources and funds to help migrant families.

One after one, several Las Cruces residents angrily denounced the council's intent to set aside that money. 

Residents like Cornelio Martinez, who moved there four years ago, urged the council to instead spend the $500,000 on services and programs for the homeless, for veterans, and local residents.

"It's unbelievable what you guys are doing. You think you're doing good. I'm a veteran. These people are invading my country that I fought for," he said as several attendees applauded. "How can you allow this?"

Miyagishima downplayed the idea that the city was using taxpayer money on migrant families, insisting that the $500,000 came from funds a private company paid the city for leasing a medical center. 

However, even residents who expressed more sympathy for the migrant families said they had concerns that the city's response to help migrant families would overburden emergency services and first-responders should another emergency situation develop.

"I'm elated that you are so prepared to handle an emergency like this," lifelong resident Dolores Lucero said. "I hope that you can work that quickly with the rest of the community when they need your services that fast, because it doesn't happen. You don't act that fast in other situations."

Rodriguez, McAllen's city manager, said he understood the concerns and fatigue local residents have about spending taxpayer money to help migrant families.

"I don’t blame them — these are their tax dollars," he said. "Having said, I’m going to tell you something else: We don’t intend to stop doing what we’re doing as long as we’ve got people transported to McAllen."

Garcia, with the city of San Diego, said officials will continue monitoring the release of migrant families along the border and adapt their strategy as needed.

She emphasized the need for nonprofits and local governments to continue working together. But she said they cannot and should not have to go at it alone.

“We realize that this is a federal government issue, and we need the federal government to provide resources to help these families," she said.

Have any news tips or story ideas about the U.S.-Mexico border? Reach the reporter at rafael.carranza@arizonarepublic.com, or follow him on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.

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