SAN DIEGO (Border Report) — The County of San Diego last week applauded the allocation of $19.6 million in federal funding to support programs aiding asylum-seekers entering the country through the San Diego-Mexico border.
It had been lobbying for the money so it could reopen a migrant welcome center and prevent the Border Patrol from busing and dropping off migrants at public transit centers around San Diego.
“I am thrilled to announce that after months of tirelessly advocating for funding, the federal government has allocated $19.6 million to support the thousands of asylum-seekers who are coming across our border,” San Diego County Chairperson Nora Vargas said last week. “I am very proud to have led these efforts since the beginning and I am even more proud of how far we’ve come.”
Vargas went on to thank the Biden administration, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and members of Congress from the San Diego area for helping secure the funding.
“Our work is not over, and we are now working to adopt a sustainable, federally funded migrant transition center in San Diego County,” Vargas said. “As we learn more details on the funding in the coming days and weeks, I look forward to working with our partners to maximize these critical federal dollars for our region.”
The welcome center was forced to close in late February after county money ran out.
The San Diego County Board of Supervisors had allocated $3 million in October 2023 and another $3 million in December 2023 to keep the temporary Migrant Transitional Center open.
As operations at the center stopped, Border Patrol began dropping off migrants in public.
According to Supervisor Jim Desmond, who has been adamantly opposed to the migrant welcome center, 30,000 asylum-seekers have been bused by agents around San Diego since the center closed.
Desmond has said the facility should not reopen, calling it a “waste of money.”
While Vargas originally said the money would be spent on the center, neither she nor the county have officially committed to financing the center with the new federal money.
On Wednesday, she was not available for comment as she was traveling on County business to Sacramento, but her office told Border Report, the money will be allocated and they are still “talking about possibilities.”
“The Chairwoman plans to allocate the funding toward the Transition Center, however, there is no official determination that can be shared at this time,” read an email from Vargas’ office.
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