Local opinion: Federal cash for immigration wave drying up

About a decade ago, my office began working with the incoming migrant community literally out of the waiting area in what was then the Greyhound bus depot — then located just west of the TCC in a double-wide trailer. Community volunteers under the title of Project Mariposa provided the “staffing.” It was all volunteer.

As the issue grew in numbers, Greyhound asked us to relocate and Catholic Community Services stepped up and became the primary partner managing the immigrant issue in Tucson and Pima County. Community volunteers were and continue to be the backbone of the operations. I introduced the CCS director (Teresa Cavendish) to the owner of the Benedictine (Ross Rulney), and we agreed to use that facility as a temporary respite. When we first toured the facility we anticipated housing about 50-75 people per day. Before the first month of our using that building had passed, there were over 400 people per night staying in literally every floor of the monastery. Ross did not charge a penny to us for using the facility and, in fact, poured thousands of dollars into keeping the plumbing and other utilities functional. We used the site for 6-8 months until it went under construction for what is now the Benedictine apartments.

From there, we transitioned into the county-owned former juvenile detention center that’s located out on Ajo. I say ‘we,’ but the reality is this became a CCS/County function at that time. The county signed a lease agreement with CCS that’s still in effect. The current housing capacity out at Ajo (Casa Alitas) is right around 150 people per day.

The number of migrants coming to Tucson and Pima County has been averaging around 1,000 per day. The county stood up additional intake sites. The county and CCS have been handling the lion’s share of the logistics — transportation, food, clothing, housing — when numbers got too large the city would help with temporary leasing of hotels, being reimbursed by the county through their federal allocation.

With the failure of the recent federal immigration bill that “federal allocation” is drying up. The county anticipates they’ll be out of cash by around the end of March. The cost of operating the full operation (Casa Alitas plus the other off-site facilities they’ve had to operationalize due to the increased numbers) is roughly $1M per week. If the federal government is no longer going to fund the work being done by Pima County, then they have to decide if they’re coming out-of-pocket for what would be in the $50M per year range or if they scale back the operation. The Board of Supervisors will discuss that on Tuesday (today). Here’s one quote I pulled from the county administrators’ memo issued over the weekend on this topic:

“There is no feasible way the County could afford to maintain sheltering services for an average of 1,000 people a day or more. At $1 million or more a week, it would cost County taxpayers between $50 million and $60 million a year to maintain current operations.”

The County Administrator issued a memo in which she laid out the basic facts; those are, the feds aren’t paying the freight, we’re facing our own budget challenges, do you (Board) want to fund this, or do we shut it down? Even the use of alternate county facilities on a severely scaled back basis would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the level of services and capacity they arranged for. If I’m counting votes, I’m guessing they’ve got enough support on the Board to signal to the feds that come the end of March the capacity goes from 1,000 per day down to 150 per day and the optics become a stain on the federal failure to manage our immigration policy. Another quote from the administrator’s memo:

“It is severely frustrating and disappointing that we are in this situation. This is a crisis of the federal government’s making due to the failure to pass sensible border and immigration reform and to provide the necessary funding to local jurisdictions forced to deal with the deleterious effects of federal border policy.”

And, of course, she’s right. The concluding portion of the memo says this:

“My recommendation is to not fund any of the options presented in the contingency respite site plans. We have done all we can for five years with nearly a dozen County departments having been involved in the management of the complex sheltering coalition.”

There’s not another council office that has been as directly engaged with this issue as the Ward 6 office and staff. We continue to receive your donations and get them delivered out to CCS/Casa Alitas every week. Due to notice requirements, CCS has already advised many of their staff that they will be terminated when the county facilities are shut down. Anticipating the Board vote, Casa Alitas is likely going to be the sole location for migrant drop-offs, and if the numbers don’t significantly decline we could see street releases in as little as 7-8 weeks. They will certainly see them in Santa Cruz and Cochise counties.

What is needed now continues to be the clothing (warm gloves are important) and hygiene products you’ve been bringing. Sunscreen, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and that sort of thing. New underclothes and socks are important. Kids’ toys too. Please continue bringing that to the Ward 6 city council office located at 3202 E. 1st Street.

The Benedictine is long gone. It served its purpose, and we’re grateful to Ross Rulney for his generosity. Soon the auxiliary intake centers that have been run by the county may be shuttered — a function of the federal failure to manage their own border responsibilities. Catholic Community Services is not walking away from their work. They’ll need your support. I’ll keep writing about how this evolves following the Board of Supervisors vote and the response from D.C. What’s clear, though, is that Pima County cannot pull $1M per week from their budget and continue doing the feds’ work for them and shift the costs from FEMA dollars to local ones.