Pima County officials are warning that the community will suffer from a homeless crisis of illegal immigrants come Easter Sunday after federal funding for illegal immigrant support runs out.
County officials estimate that there will be as many as 400 to 1,000 illegal immigrants released by border agents into Tucson daily.
The county has spent about $1 million a week to shelter around 1,000 illegal immigrants — bussed in by state-contracted coach transportation — using funds sourced from the federal Shelter and Services Program. If the county were to take on all the sheltering and service costs, taxpayers would be putting up between $50 and $60 million a year.
About a billion in federal funding for SSP was tied into the failed foreign aid bill engineered by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ). SSP was specifically allocated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to mitigate illegal immigrant shelter and service costs borne by non-federal entities.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) allocated $363.8 million to SSP for the 2023 fiscal year. Pima County received over $12 million from SSP. These funds went to Catholic Community Services’ (CCS) Casa Alitas shelters, which served as a middle man of sorts amid the Border Patrol’s catch and release of illegal immigrants. Without federal funds, illegal immigrants will likely end up living on the streets.
The World Hunger Ecumenical Task Force (WHETF) in Maricopa County received nearly $8.5 million. WHETF of Cochise County received $150,000, and Yuma County WHETF received over $11 million.
Last month, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher warned the Board of Supervisors (BOS) in a memo that the county no longer had sufficient funding to continue shelter and other services for illegal immigrants.
Lesher advised the board that she had instructed a full stop to county coordination, contracts management, and funding reimbursement of the shelter services on Easter Sunday. Currently, the county’s Grants Management and Innovation Office, Office of Emergency Management, and Procurement are winding down those processes.
The county administrator explained that illegal immigrants would flock to Tucson from across Pima, Cochise, and Santa Cruz counties because the city offers more transportation opportunities and homelessness support than the rural counties.
“There is already a difficult homeless problem in Pima County that we are working tirelessly to solve or mitigate,” said Lesher. “What we are about to experience with street releases is homelessness on steroids.”
The county is considering two plans for handling the anticipated influx of roving illegal immigrants. However, Lesher advised against any of the plans as “imprudent,” arguing that the border crisis was a federal problem that should be covered by federal funding.
“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,” said Lesher.
The first plan would involve a county-owned building, the Mission Facility west of the Pima County Adult Detention Complex. One version of the plan would cost over $126,000 a month and another $40,000 for necessary materials. The illegal immigrants would be bussed and released to the location, and upon arrival given only the “bare necessities:” utilities, maintenance, janitorial services, 24-hour security, and communication aids such as an A-frame sign and language-specific cards and fliers. Under this plan, the county would not provide food or transportation. A second version of the plan would increase costs to over $396,900 a month to provide support staffing and food, but not transportation.
The second plan would make use of the county-owned Pima Fairgrounds “Raceway” and install the rental of a large tent and portable showers. That would cost $305,100 to erect and about $283,200 to maintain monthly, minimum. Additional costs have yet to be discerned.
Of the five viable non-county buildings and properties, the owners either expressed no interest in housing illegal immigrants or the properties were unsuitable for mass sheltering operations.
Among the services discontinued, per a memo issued to the BOS earlier this month, will be both the short and long-distance transportation services for asylum seekers (ending August 15 and April 11, respectively), staffing support services for humanitarian assistance program (ending May 11), and food service county congregate and non-congregate shelters (ending May 31). Another program, hotel shelter services for COVID-positive asylum seekers, will conclude next week.
Although those dates extend beyond Lesher’s directive to stop county efforts as of Easter Sunday, the county administrator noted in her February memo to BOS that she was planning for the possibility of reimbursement requests coming in after the programs conclude.
Per the county administrator’s last weekly situational report, issued in mid-February, there was a daily average of 910 arrivals and weekly average of over 6,300 arrivals. Since Jan. 1, 2019, the county has recorded over 405,000 releases in the area.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
A nonprofit program receiving taxpayer funds to house illegal immigrants called police on two congressmen who attempted to visit the facility last week.
A manager with Casa Alitas called the sheriff on Republican Reps. Tom Tiffany (WI) and Doug LaMalfa (CA), both members of the Natural Resources subcommittee, when they attempted to visit a Casa Alitas location housing illegal immigrants: a repurposed Ramada Inn in Tucson. In a video of the interaction, the pair are invited to speak to an unidentified, masked woman referred to as the “manager” of the location; upon hearing them introduce themselves as members of Congress, the woman turned and yelled at her colleague to “call 911.”
Tiffany urged a public congressional hearing on NGO expenditures for illegal immigrant aid.
“These NGOs aiding illegals are receiving federal dollars, and it’s Congress’ duty to provide oversight,” said Tiffany. “This needs investigating ASAP, and Congress must hold public hearings with these groups testifying to give the American people transparency on how their tax dollars are being spent.”
After @JamesOKeefeIII exposed that the Casa Alitas Ramada Hotel in Tucson was housing illegals, I made a stop to see how American taxpayer dollars are being spent.
These NGOs aiding illegals are receiving federal dollars, and it’s Congress’ duty to provided oversight.
Casa Alitas is a program of the Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona. The program takes in illegal immigrants from ICE and Border Patrol detention, and gives them housing, food, clothing, laundry, toiletries, and travel assistance.
The parent organization spent over $3 million in the 2022 fiscal year to operate Casa Alitas, assisting nearly 47,700 illegal immigrants that year. As of their latest data in 2023, the program has assisted over 180,000 illegal immigrants since launching in 2014.
In December, illegal immigrants overwhelmed Phoenix Sky Harbor airport with transport and travel assistance supplied by Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona. Multiple individuals reported witnessing the illegal immigrants receiving priority boarding and expedited security checks.
The cost to house and transport illegal immigrants has come at a high cost to taxpayers. In October, AZ Free News reported on the city of Tucson having spent $5 million in under a year to provide housing and busing to illegal immigrants through a reimbursement arrangement with the county and federal government. The city entered into an agreement last April to have Pima County reimburse them for incurred expenses providing services to illegal immigrants.
In a meeting last week, the Tucson City Council agreed to be reimbursed for up to another $6 million under this arrangement through the summer.
Current Casa Alitas program leadership include Diego Peña Lopez, agency director; Susana Selig-Gastelum, associate agency director; Daniel Diochea, operations manager; Kyle Haynes, operations manager; and Caleb Milford, operations manager.
“This a prime example of a critical lack of transparency,” said Backer. “If public dollars are being used to run this facility, it requires oversight by public servants who will be transparent and can be trusted to look out for the taxpayers interests.”
Tiffany visited the Casa Alitas location after O’Keefe Media Group (OMG) went undercover to report the location’s inner workings. One migrant informed an OMG journalist that he witnessed gang members taking advantage of the lax border policy.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
Over the past week, Tucson has begun to receive a number of Haitians transported from the Texas border. It is unclear how many Haitians will be brought in; AZ Free News requested those numbers from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Pima County, and the various organizations that assist refugees under the Arizona Refugee Resettlement Program. In various reports, Tucson City Councilmember Steve Kozachik indicated that the numbers were large.
AZ Free News also inquired about the vetting procedures for these refugees, if any, and how the government was determining who qualified for refugee status. The entities we questioned either didn’t respond to any of our inquiries by press time or said they couldn’t offer information to the press.
The Biden Administration is resettling Haitians after determining that their number has become a burden to border patrol in Texas. Over 15,000 were estimated to be under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas as of the past week. Tucson officials claim their intake of Haitians is temporary – one to two days, at most according to Kozachik.
The Haitian refugees are either being bussed or flown into Tucson. Once there, they are processed by immigration services and either taken to hotels or Casa Alitas, a shelter run by Catholic Community Services (CCS). Within several days, officials will contact the alien’s next-of-kin or sponsor.
CCS and Casa Alitas told AZ Free News that they aren’t answering press inquiries at this time. We also attempted to contact Pima County – they own the building where CCS operates Casa Alitas. They didn’t respond by press time.
The refugee arrivals report from the Arizona Refugee Resettlement Program didn’t document any Haitian refugees, per its updated numbers last Thursday.
Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ-04) questioned how these Haitians were reaching American soil. He noted that Haitians weren’t just coming into Texas – they’d been coming into Yuma as far back as May. Haiti to Arizona is a journey of nearly 2,800 miles.
“Many Haitians are crossing into Yuma as well. In [sic] met dozens in May 2021. All well fed. Clean,” wrote Gosar. “They did not “journey” to our border by foot. They were flown. Who is paying?
Many Haitians are crossing into Yuma as well. In met dozens in May 2021. All well fed. Clean. They did not “journey” to our border by foot. They were flown. Who is paying? https://t.co/w9VID5V7zJpic.twitter.com/wgLm7FDgeT
Rather than addressing the crisis-level surge of illegal immigrants at the border, leaving Haitians to crowd together as squatters under a bridge with minimal resources, Vice President Kamala Harris focused her concern on the allegations of poor treatment of the Haitians. She said she was “outraged” by claims that border patrol agents on horseback were whipping the Haitians. The vice president called it “horrible” and claimed it resembled slavery. She said there should be “consequences and accountability” for the border patrol agents.
“And as we all know, it also evoked images of some of the worst moments of our history, where that kind of behavior has been used against the indigenous people of our country, has been used against African-Americans during times of slavery,” stated Harris.
The National Border Patrol Council, among many others, debunked claims that border patrol were whipping illegal immigrants. They shared a corrective post from the Border Patrol Horse Patrol.
“Those are split reins; not whips, they are 6 feet long. They are split for when we go into the brush. If we go through thick brush and a tree branch gets caught, it will just slip right through. The reins are connected to the bit. The bit is in their mouth and the last thing we want to do is hurt our partners by tearing up their mouths,” read the post. “You have seen the video of the agent spinning the rein when illegals get close to the horse. It’s to create distance between the horse and the person on the ground. Our horses easily weigh 1200 pounds, they can step on someone and break a bone or kill a small child [if] a person gets too close. We also spin them if someone attempts to grab the reins because the last thing you want is someone who doesn’t know a thing about horses, to have control of the horse you are on. (If an illegal attempts to gain control of our reins it is considered deadly.) The horse can freak out, jump up and roll with you on them. Us as riders can be killed if a horse lands on us. Hope this helps those who have never seen a horse or split reins before… we will continue to support our brothers and sisters in Del Río.”
Even the photographer who captured the viral images of border patrol holding reins near the Haitians clarified that no agents were “whipping” the illegal immigrants.
Regardless of the fact that these claims were false, the Biden Administration immediately ordered border patrol to cease using horses while handling the border crisis. President Joe Biden even threatened that law enforcement “would pay” for doing their job.
Horses are advantageous in patrolling the border due to their stature and ability to traverse rough, uneven terrain, and due to the animals’ natural gifts: their herding instinct for guiding and corralling illegal immigrants, and their heightened sense of sight and hearing for scoping out illegal immigrants.
Harris was designated to handle the border by Biden at the outbreak of his border crisis earlier this year.
Members of the Biden Administration are also displeased with the Haiti mix to the border crisis – but for different reasons, apparently. Biden’s Special Envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, resigned on Wednesday. He claimed that the Biden Administration had ignored or dismissed his recommendations for handling the issues in Haiti that led to the border crisis. Foote said that the forced deportation of thousands of Haitians wasn’t proper protocol, and that the Haitians would suffer or die because of it.
Foote indicated that the Biden Administration’s forthcoming decision to install their pick of leadership for the Haitians would only result in failure again.
“[W]hat our Haitian friends really want, and need, is the opportunity to chart their own course, without international puppeteering and favored candidates but with genuine support for that course. I do not believe that Haiti can enjoy stability until her citizens have the dignity of truly choosing their own leaders fairly and acceptably,” wrote Foote. “Last week, the U.S. and other embassies in Port-au-Prince issued another public statement of support for the unelected, de facto Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry as interim leader of Haiti, and have continued to tout his ‘political agreement’ over another broader, earlier accord shepherded by civil society. The hubris that makes us believe we should pick the winner – again – is impressive. This cycle of international political interventions in Haiti has consistently produced catastrophic results. More negative impacts to Haiti will have calamitous consequences not only in Haiti, but in the U.S. and our neighbors in the hemisphere.”
By federal law, refugees are those unable or unwilling to return to their native country due to “well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.”
Haiti is currently facing political turmoil. In July their president, Jovenel Moise, was assassinated by gunmen claiming to be U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents. His murder incited more chaos in Haiti, on top of the over 90 gangs that hold much of the power in the country.
Then last month, the country was hit with an earthquake, causing 2,200 deaths, an estimated 12,000 injuries, and damaging or destroying around 12,000 homes.
Nearly 28,000 Haitians have been intercepted at the border this year.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
