Nonprofits and local governments in Arizona will receive more than $54 million to continue providing humanitarian assistance to migrants released at the state’s border with Mexico, the federal government announced Friday, April 12.

The funding is part of the Shelter and Services Program, which is jointly administered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Congress replenished the program in March, when they allocated $650 million as part of a supplemental funding package passed to avoid a government shutdown.

FEMA will award the grants to local communities in two separate rounds. The first round announced on Friday totaled about $300 million. The second round will be awarded in a new competitive process by the end of September, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The four states along the U.S.-Mexico border are slated to get more than half of the funding from the first round. Texas will receive $62.4 million, Arizona $54.6 million, California $45.2 million and New Mexico $4.1 million.

The rest of the funding will go to communities in the interior of the country, which have also been struggling to accommodate and assist large numbers of migrants and asylum seekers arriving to their cities. Some of the biggest recipients in the interior include New York City, which will get $38.9 million, and Atlanta, which will get $10.1 million.

Nonprofits and local governments in Arizona faced a March 31 financial cliff that threatened to upend a system they developed to prevent having the border officials release migrants into the streets of border communities in southern Arizona.

Pima County, which is the fiscal agency that distributes funding to nonprofits and local governments in southern Arizona, will receive $21.8 million of the funds allocated to the state. The county ran out of funds to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants on March 31, but said this funding announcement will cover retroactive costs for expenses incurred over the past two weeks.

“The size of this award is an acknowledgment by the Biden Administration of the benefit that our coalition provides to the country and the people of Arizona, Pima County and Tucson. Easing suffering, facilitating travel, and protecting the health and welfare of our border-county communities is a win for everyone,” Adelita Grijalva, the chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, said in a written statement.

“This funding gives us the breathing room to work towards a better solution that, at the very least, will relieve local governments of the burden of mitigating the effects of federal border control and immigration policy,” she added.

In addition to Pima County, other local governments and nonprofits in Arizona will receive large awards. Maricopa County will get $11.6 million, World Hunger Ecumenical Arizona Task Force in Maricopa County will also receive $11.6 million, while World Hunger Ecumenical Arizona Task Force in Yuma County will receive $9.5 million.

The funding allocated for Fiscal Year 2024 is less than the $780 million set aside for local governments and nonprofits providing humanitarian assistance in 2023. That year, FEMA awarded a bulk of the funding to communities in the interior of the country.

Arizona lawmakers pressed FEMA and Customs and Border Protection to prioritize border communities when determining how to distribute the money, and to get it communities quickly.

Arizona’s independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly released a joint statement praising Friday’s announcement. The two senators led efforts to secure federal funding since large-scale migrant releases began in Arizona in 2018.

“Arizona’s local governments and nonprofits are on the frontlines doing the vital work that keeps asylum seekers and communities safe, and this funding will help them continue operations and support our border communities,” Kelly said.

“Today’s funds will help Arizona border nonprofits keep their doors open preventing street releases and providing humane treatment of migrants seeking asylum,” Sinema added.

Arizona’s Democratic delegation in the House also welcomed Friday’s announcement, touting changes they advocated for such as acceptable error rates in data reporting for A-numbers, which prevented nonprofits and local governments from expensing all eligible costs for reimbursement.

“This funding couldn’t come soon enough,” Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said. “I’ve visited local aid groups along the border, and they’re near a breaking point.”

Another notable change removes caps on non-congregate shelter like hotels or transportation, which nonprofits argued made it harder to respond to changing flows on the ground and limited their flexibility to respond.

“The funds announced today are needed to help our border communities manage the crisis at the border, and I won’t stop pushing the administration to prioritize Arizona,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., said.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who represents nearly all of Arizona’s communities along the border with Mexico, said that while the funding was welcomed, it was not a permanent fix to a federal issue.

“It’s clear that the only path forward to address these issues long-term is real immigration reform to fix our broken system beginning with humane solutions, increased legal pathways, dealing with root causes, and providing more resources and personnel at the border instead of Republicans’ detrimental funding cuts and failed enforcementonly policies,” Grijalva said.

In the past year, the number of migrants crossing through the Arizona border increased dramatically, with the state once again becoming the busiest crossing corridor along the southern

U.S. border with Mexico. The number of apprehensions in Arizona has been dropping week over week, though they typically rise during the summer.

The increase has continued to strain the capacity of border and immigration holding facilities in Arizona. As a result, Customs and Border Protection has been coordinating with nonprofits and local governments to drop off migrants at designated sites after they’ve been legally processed and cleared for release into the country under parole.

In Arizona, CBP has been releasing migrants in Yuma, Tucson, Nogales and Douglas. State and local governments coordinate with nonprofits like Catholic Community Services of Southern Arizona, the Regional Center for Border Health and the International Rescue Committee to transport migrants from small communities to larger cities like Tucson and Phoenix.

The humanitarian assistance includes housing, food, medical screenings, and transportation. The majority of migrants released will not stay in Arizona, and instead have relatives and sponsor buy plane or bus tickets to go elsewhere in the United States.

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art ~ our lady of the wall ~ brandon maldonado

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old timer chronicle editor ~ rawclyde!

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