Local opinion: An appeal to the Congress and President Biden to help prevent a humanitarian crisis

The following is the opinion

and analysis of the writer:

For nearly five years, Pima County and the City of Tucson have led a coalition of charitable organizations and state and local governments to prevent a daily humanitarian crisis from occurring on the streets of our border communities.

It has been a herculean effort involving many hundreds of people and many millions of dollars. Up until now, those dollars have come from various federal funds approved since 2019 by the Congress and the President to cover the costs of the short-term, overnight sheltering of the thousands of legally processed asylum seekers (LPAS) being released into our city and county by U.S. Customs and Border Protection every month.

By the end of February 2024, if not sooner, those federal funds will run out. Congress has yet to appropriate further funding to pay for costs incurred protecting our communities and the legal asylum seekers through this program.

Neither the County nor the City can afford to use local tax dollars to continue safely assisting asylum seekers on their journey once federal funds are exhausted; this is a federal responsibility. It’s important that the public, members of Congress, and President Biden understand the devastating implications of the loss of this federal funding.

Since Sept. 1, 2023, Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector has released more than 130,000 legally processed asylum seekers into Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima counties. That’s about 1,080 a day, roughly half in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, and the other half in Tucson.

None of these legal asylum seekers have ended up on the street. Catholic Community Services (CCS), through its Casa Alitas shelter, is contracted by Pima County to give asylum seekers the aid they need to move on to other parts of the country. Most legal asylum seekers are only with Casa Alitas an average of 36 to 48 hours while transportation is coordinated. The sheltering coalition also assists Cochise and Santa Cruz counties by transporting people being released there to Casa Alitas to prevent humanitarian catastrophes in those areas.

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If the current volume of border crossers persists after the federal funding has run out, Border Patrol will still be releasing 500 or more people a day onto the streets of Tucson and hundreds more onto the streets of Nogales and Douglas, where those rural communities have far fewer resources. There will be little to no shelter space available for them.

Who will help these asylum seekers with language barriers make flight or bus reservations? Where will they get food and water? Where will they go the bathroom? Where will they sleep? As the 500 released today struggle to figure out how to move on, they will be joined by another 500 tomorrow. And another 500 the day after that, and another, and another, day after day until there are thousands of desperate people on the street just trying to survive, let alone book a flight out of town.

A humanitarian crisis of this magnitude must not be allowed to happen. We are determined to prevent it. So far, we have. All of those questions above are answered every day by the sheltering coalition coordinated by Pima County, the City of Tucson, and Catholic Community Services.

We can keep doing it as long as the federal government keeps funding it. We have proven that local agencies can manage and prevent the harmful effects of federal immigration policy if Congress provides the funding.

Finally, we often are asked why we are doing this. Preventing the horrific situation described above is the obvious answer. We are duty bound to protect the health and safety of the people of Tucson and Pima County. But there is also a greater reason than civic duty — it’s simply the right thing to do.

The people seeking asylum legally in the United States are human beings. They are fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters trying to make a better and safer life for themselves in our great country. They have been apprehended by U.S. border authorities, interviewed and processed, given an immigration hearing date for their asylum claims, and then released into the United States where federal law says they are legally allowed to remain until their hearing.

How could we, as a loving and caring community, and as kind-hearted human beings who have genuine concern about the health and well-being of others, stand by and watch day after day the constant compounding of a massive humanitarian crisis?

We cannot. We will not. We will do what is right. We implore our Congressional delegation and all of the nation’s Representatives and Senators to find a solution to this crisis and to do what is right by continuing to provide the necessary funding for the temporary sheltering of legally processed asylum seekers released into border communities in Arizona.