Local governments and charities have been tested, but so far, Tucson shelters have been able to handle a sharp increase in migrants released by border authorities.
Casa Alitas, the nonprofit group at the heart of the shelter operations, had more than 1,300 people sheltered in Tucson Friday night, and that’s apart from those housed by the city government.
“We’re finding space for all of them,” said Teresa Cavendish, who directs Casa Alitas. “We’ve managed to avert street releases.”
“First thing (Saturday) morning, folks start moving out, and we help them circulate through that process. At the same time, hundreds more folks are arriving.”
Constant coordination between the state, county and city governments as well as Casa Alitas, has worked so far to keep people from being released on the streets of Southern Arizona towns or Tucson without any place to go, she said.
“This is a wild ride,” said Lane Mandle, the chief of staff to the city manager, working at one of the hotels Tucson uses for shelter. “I wake up in the morning, and I don’t know what the day is going to hold.”
Her fear is that the city, which is the backup provider of shelter, will run out of beds. At that point, street releases are likely.
The increase in border crossings is, in part, a result of the end of the enforcement of Title 42 health mandates at the border. This allowed Border Patrol agents to immediately return some people to Mexico without any processing. But the end of the pandemic emergency meant the end of this policy.
One thing that has helped the local authorities is a court injunction issued by a federal judge in Florida. The injunction stopped the U.S. Border Patrol from conducting expedited releases of people found not to pose a risk to public safety, even though they don’t have court dates yet.
As a result of the ruling, Border Patrol must detain people longer, meaning its facilities are remaining overfilled, but the releases are happening at a pace that is manageable for local authorities.
Migrants and government officials were still assessing the effects of new regulations adopted by President Joe Biden’s administration in the hope of stabilizing the Southwest border region and undercutting smugglers who charge migrants to get there, the Associated Press reported Saturday.
Migrants are now essentially barred from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they did not first apply online or seek protection in the countries they traveled through. Families allowed in as their immigration cases progress will face curfews and GPS monitoring. Those expelled can now be barred from reentry for five years and face possible criminal prosecution.
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