TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — UPDATE 12/20 2:25 p.m.
The Pima County Board of Supervisors approved the lease in a vote of 4-1, with Supervisor Steve Christy the sole 'no' vote.
Federal tax money from FEMA channeled through Pima County will fund the effort. The county says the move should save money in the long run.
Pima County has been using the FEMA funds to rent motel space as temporary housing.
Follow Up: Pima Co. leases “Big Box” shelter for migrants
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Groups that help immigrants and asylum seekers were bracing for a surge of people from the end of Title 42 this week when they got word the Supreme Court ordered the immigration restriction to stay in effect at least for now.
But Pima County Supervisors will consider a plan Tuesday to rent a large building to expand migrant shelter space.
A big former call center on Drexel Road could play a big role in the immigration issue. Pima County Supervisors are considering leasing it as a way of housing high numbers of asylum seekers.
Title 42 used the COVID pandemic as a rationale to prevent most immigration into the US across the Mexican border. It also allowed for quicker deportations.
The Supreme Court stay came down after we talked with Teresa Cavendish. She’s the director ofCasa Alitas, part of Catholic Community Services. Casa Alitas shelters asylum seekers. They are legally in the U.S., referred to Casa Alitas by Border Patrol or U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. They may stay at the shelter for two or three days before they move on to stay with sponsor families while judges consider their asylum request.
The predicted end of Title 42 had Casa Alitas preparing for hundreds of additional people.
Cavendish says, “At this time last year, we could probably comfortably accept 250, maybe 300 folks a day. Now it's significantly higher than that. We have been routinely accepting 400 to well over 600 people a day. That's not without some growing pains and some stress on the system. But we are able to manage that.”
The idea of leasing part of the former call center building to provide more space has been in the works for quite some time. Pima County will consider paying about $332,000 for six months, with an option to extend.
Cavendish says no local tax money is involved–that’s Federal money channeled through Pima County.
The existing shelter will continue to operate. Cavendish says the new space could allow the County to close and consolidate other shelter spaces in places like motels.
Volunteers are essential to the shelter effort. Joy Tucker has been a volunteer for several years, helping to feed the asylum seekers. When we talked she was preparing for Title 42 to end,
“It's a lot of stress for us in the sense that we need to be able to handle these large numbers. We have an incredible crew of volunteers that are helping us and we use a local catering company that is able to provide hot meals for us individually served and also frozen meals individually served, and they are prepared for the increase. So that's a blessing to us to have them ready.”
The Supreme Court stay is a temporary halt to allow time to consider arguments for and against continuing Title 42. So the surge of migrants could still happen.