Above: A Feb. 26 report from FOX 5’s Jaime Chambers on confusion after the closure of a county-funded migrant welcome center.
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — California state Sen. Laphonza Butler has joined San Diego leaders in pressuring the federal government in a letter sent on Tuesday to open up funds to support a long-term transfer center and shelter for migrants arriving in the region.
The letter, addressed to White House officials like Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, came after meetings with Mayor Todd Gloria and Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas on the early closure of a county-funded migrant center and return of Border Patrol’s migrant street releases, her office said in a release.
“States, including California, continue to see significant numbers of migrant encounters at our southern border. The situation in California became even more pressing this week,” the senator said in the letter, using the forced shuttering of the transitional center due to the depletion of county funds as an example of the urgency for federal assistance.
“Without the intervention this transitional facility was able to provide, Border Patrol will now be forced to release an estimated 800-1000 migrants a day without orientation or basic humanitarian service at regional transit stations,” she continued.
In the letter, Butler asks for the Biden administration to put additional funding into the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, as well as expand the kind of organizations that can qualify for funding.
According to FEMA, the Shelter Services Program, or SSP, provides funds to non-federal entities that provide sheltering or other services to noncitizen migrants encountered by the Department of Homeland Security and released pending immigration proceedings.
However, these funds are not provided upfront, rather they are reimbursed to applicants later.
In her letter, Butler suggests changing the SSP’s application model to allow entities to receive upfront funding, allowing “new, willing actors to participate” in providing resources to asylum-seekers. The senator also argues it would be a step the administration can take as the Biden administration waits for Congress to pass a full-year appropriations bill.
The full letter sent by California Sen. Butler can be read here.
For San Diego, the letter comes on the heels of a 4-1 vote by the County Board of Supervisors to accept a concept paper and advocacy plan to avoid the daily releases of migrants at public transit centers — the vast majority of whom are trying to find their way to other parts of the country.
Supervisor Jim Desmond was the lone dissent in the vote. In a statement after the meeting, he argued it would “perpetuate a cycle of dysfunction within the immigration system.”
The plan’s recommendations, which were presented to the board on Tuesday, included the creation of a long-term version of the recently closed migrant welcome center sustained by federal funding and philanthropic opportunities.
According to the concept report, the proposed shelter would have a capacity for 500 people and could be located either near a transit hub in central San Diego or close to the border, coming with a price tag — depending on location — of about $12 million to $345 million.
With the vote of approval, county staff will be authorized to apply for additional sources that provide “upfront funding” to use immediately for “migrant sheltering and services.”
Outside the paper, the board also voted unanimously on Tuesday to have county officials pen a letter to the Biden administration and leaders in Congress, where a bipartisan border reform bill was recently blocked by House Republicans, urging immediate action.
It came after Desmond floated a motion to temporarily close the U.S.-Mexico border, prompting Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer to provide a replacement motion requesting the letter.
“There was no way Chairwoman Vargas and I were going to let our County support closing the border,” Lawson-Remer said in a statement after the meeting on Tuesday. “Even though we flipped the script on this vote, we still need the federal government to step up. It’s the best way for us to help asylum seekers, and relieve the pressure on our local resources.”
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