The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its disaster relief agency is withholding about $10.4 million in federal grant dollars to reimburse Pima County for services it provided to migrants due to “significant concerns” that some funding might have been used to encourage their entry into the United States.
In a letter to Pima County this week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it will be withholding payments from three grants the county used to operate migrant shelters, through the agency’s Shelter and Services Program.
Pima County is owed about $10.4 million from the feds, said Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher. About $5.8 million had already been submitted for reimbursement and about $4.6 million had yet to be sent to FEMA, she said.
The pause hitting Pima County is part of a larger review by FEMA into organizations that provide aid to migrants, the Associated Press has reported.
Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher, in a March 12 memo, said the letter from DHS was received earlier in the day.
The letter notified the county that FEMA was temporarily withholding payment for three grants awarded to Pima County through the agency’s Shelter and Services Program. Those grants totaled $52.6 million.
Pima County says the feds owe it about $10.3 million in reimbursement for services the provided migrants before it closed its two Tucson shelters in January.
“The Department of Homeland Security has significant concerns that SSP funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities,” said the letter sent by Cameron Hamilton, the interim head of FEMA. “The Department is concerned that entities receiving payment under this program may be guilty of encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States.”
The federal law Hamilton cites is used to prosecute smugglers accused of bringing migrants into the United States.
Hamilton asked the county respond within 30 days. The county was told to send “All documents regarding the aliens with whom your organization and your subrecipients and contracts interacted with in carrying out the scope of your SSP award, including their names and contact information,” along with what specific services were provided.
The county has 60 days to appeal FEMA’s action.
Lesher is set to update Supervisors about the funding pause during their meeting Tuesday.
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.
FEMA’s program awarded over $640 million in the 2024 fiscal year to state and local governments, as well as organizations across the country to help deal with large numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and Denver, as well as organizations such as United Way of Miami and “several branches of Catholic Charities,” received SSP funding, the Associated Press reported.
Lesher, in her memo to county supervisors, said the same FEMA letter was also sent to the state, Maricopa and Yuma counties and an unnamed Maricopa County-based nonprofit.
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