Pima County joins lawsuit against feds for money spent to house migrants

Pima County has joined two other American cities in a lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for money they say is owed for sheltering migrants.

The lawsuit that includes Chicago and Denver was filed Friday against DHS and its disaster relief agency for withholding federal grants awarded to the municipalities to operate migrant shelters through the agency’s Shelter and Services Program.

Pima County says it is owed about $12 million, Shawndrea Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Pima County Attorney’s Office, said Friday.

The federal government “needs to make good on what they owe our community,” Pima County Attorney Laura Conover said in a statement.

“While the Department of Homeland Security and FEMA may not think 12 million dollars is a big deal, it would be a tremendous loss for our community. We believe this cost should be borne by the federal government as approved by Congress, not from Pima County taxpayers,” Conover said.

The county began accepting the federal funds in 2019, during Trump’s first term, “to ensure public health and safety,” said Rex Scott, chair of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

“The federal government is suddenly changing the rules” and sending “ambiguous and conflicting demands,” Scott said. “Acting as an earnest partner in this endeavor, we then provided sheltering services in good faith. We relied on these Congressionally appropriated funds and adhered to every regulation and law ... Immigration is a federal responsibility, and we’ve said all along that we would only provide sheltering services if the federal government paid for them,” Scott said.

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“It appears DHS/FEMA are now refusing to disburse Congressionally approved funds. In order to advocate for our taxpayers and protect the county budget, we had no choice but to seek relief in federal court.”

The pause in funding that hit Pima County was part of a larger review by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) into organizations that provide aid to migrants.

A letter the county received in March from Cameron Hamilton, then the interim head of FEMA, said DHS had “significant concerns” that the federal funding was going to “entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities,” citing a federal law used to prosecute smugglers accused of bringing migrants into the United States.

The Pima County migrant-aid program started in 2019 and grew in 2023, when the number of asylum-seekers increased.

The county has sheltered approximately 518,868 asylum-seekers since 2019 and received more than $117 million from the federal government for temporary sheltering, as previously reported in January, when the county closed its two migrant aid shelters.

The county’s program has been entirely federally funded.

Denver is seeking about $25 million, the Denver Gazette reported.

Kristen Cabanban, a spokesperson for the city of Chicago’s Department of Law, said the city filed two lawsuits Friday. It says the Trump Administration “violated the U.S. Constitution and other laws in freezing over $50 million in funds intended for critical city services.”