Feds withhold $10M for Pima County migrant shelters, imply local officials harboring people illegally

The Department of Homeland Security told Pima County officials this week they are withholding funds owed for operating migrant shelters, essentially accusing the county of using federal dollars to encourage people to come to the U.S. to seek asylum.

In Pima County alone, the federally funded effort assisted more than half a million people over about six years, costing about $120 million. All of them were legally processed by immigration officials.

About $10 million still remains to be paid by the federal government for expenses borne by the county, Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher said.

In a memo Wednesday, Lesher told the Board of Supervisors that an official from the Federal Emergency Management Agency sent a letter to the county, stating they would “temporarily” withhold payments for the Shelter and Services Program — a congressionally approved effort that sent more than $117 million in federal funds to help the county shelter around 518,00 asylum seekers over the last several years, including families with children.

“The Department of Homeland Security has significant concerns that SSP funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities,” Cameron Hamilton, the Trump administration’s “Senior Official Performing the Duties of FEMA Administrator” said in the letter, which was emailed to a county staffer Tuesday.

The letter demands that the county provide the name and contact information of each migrant who was provided services, “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided,” and proof of provision. Alternatively, the county can provide a written statement that all of that information has already been provided to DHS/FEMA, he wrote.

Local shelter staffers have routinely collected the A-numbers, which are assigned by CBP, from every migrant entering their facilities, and county officials have been including that information when submitting requests for reimbursement from federal grant officials.

Lesher said in
January that she was concerned the incoming Trump administration would halt
funding until spending is reviewed or audited; DHS’s letter
Wednesday made Lesher’s concerns prophetic.

Wednesday, she said the county “welcomes” the federal scrutiny and noted that all of the migrants who were assisted were processed and released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Wednesday night, Lesher told the Sentinel that about $7 million has yet to be paid out under the grant program.

Thursday, she said that a detailed review shows about $10 million remains to be reimbursed — about $5.7 million that has already been invoiced to FEMA, and roughly another $4.6 million that has yet to be submitted.

“We are preparing invoices for the remaining costs covering July 1, 2024 through Feb. 21, 2025 — this includes late invoices from several recipients and things like utilities,” she said. There were “wrap-up bills” of about $930,000 as the program wound down at the beginning of the year, the county administrator said.

Pima County was authorized to spend up to $52 million under a trio of recent rounds of the SSP program approved by Congress, which covered the end of 2022 and ran through the end of the county’s shelter operation, Ken Walker, deputy director of the county’s Grants Management & Innovation Department, said in an email to Lesher and other officials.

Of that, just more than $13 million in “reimbursable expenses” was spent on sheltering migrants over the last couple years, he said. That means the county had the ability to spend nearly $40 million more from the federal program but did not, he said.

“We were spending $2 million a week at the height of the December 2023 migrant crisis,” county spokesman
Mark Evans told the Sentinel. “But more recently we were spending about $200,000.”

For nearly six years, Pima County received federal funding as part of a partnership with Catholic Community Services in Tucson. The program sought to assist migrants after they were released by Customs and Border Protection and was managed by FEMA and Customs and Border Protection as authorized by Congress.

The effort successfully worked to prevent “street releases” of asylum-seekers dropped off by immigration authorities without any immediate place to go or any resources, county officials have said of their work.

Since September 2023, the effort — aided by state emergency managers — also helped transport thousands of people dropped off by CBP in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties, relieving pressure to the smaller counties. 

Similar efforts helped protect asylum seekers who arrived in Yuma, and were later transported to shelter in Maricopa County. 

Lesher told the county board the same FEMA letter was sent to the Arizona state officials, to Maricopa and Yuma counties, and to a Maricopa-based nonprofit organization. World Hunger, headquartered in Phoenix, worked with Maricopa and Yuma officials to shelter migrants in those counties.

The effort was widely praised by federal, state and local officials, and DHS repeatedly funded the program, sending $55 million to Arizona last April alone. The SSP program also sent millions to New York City, Chicago, and Denver.

‘CBP determined individuals were in the U.S. legally’

Lesher said she would “provide an update” on the issue and other federal projects during the Board of Supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, March 18. 

Lesher told Tucson Sentinel on Wednesday night that it was “important to note that all the funding provided to the county was awarded by the Department of Homeland Security through its normal competitive processes.” 

“The nearly six-year Temporary Sheltering Program that began during the first Trump administration was entirely conducted with the knowledge, support, and participation of agencies of the Department of Homeland Security,” Lesher said. “To be clear, it was U.S. Customs and Border Protection who brought to our shelters the asylum seekers they had processed and were releasing. It was CBP that determined that the individuals brought to the shelters were in the United States legally.” 

“Knowing that, the county welcomes the federal review and hopes the pause will soon be lifted so that the expenses legally incurred by the county and its subcontractors in the conduct of what is a federal responsibility are fully reimbursed by DHS,” she said in an emailed statement.

“It was in the best interest of the county to submit invoices only for
services that were delivered to eligible people,” county spokesman
Mark Evans told the Sentinel.  “Our practices made sure that Pima County taxpayer were held
harmless.”

As part of the federal immigration process, most asylum seekers were given Notices to Appear at their nearest immigration court to pursue their cases, and CBP was responsible for processing and recording their personal information as well as biometrics before their release to the county. 

DHS officials also demanded county officials and the heads of any contracting agencies sign an affidavit that they had “not participated in, and have no knowledge or suspicion that anyone in your or their organizations participated in” harboring people in the country without authorization, or helped to encourage people to come across the border illegally. 

The agency cited three criminal statues which are focused on people who intentionally smuggle people into the U.S., rather than provide federally funded aid to people legally present who were released by federal officials. 

The federal government’s insinuations against the county resemble similar
attacks launched by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused
Annunciation House, a Catholic shelter network, of unlawfully harboring
people in the country illegally. That case was heard by that state’s
supreme court, who have yet to make a decision, Catholic News Agency reported.

January wind-down

In January, Lesher said the county would wind down its shelter efforts after it became clear federal officials had stopped releasing legally processed asylum seekers. 

In a memo to the supervisors that month, Lesher wrote changes following Trump’s inauguration “resulted in zero releases” of migrants seeking asylum to either of the county’s shelters: a 600-person shelter on West Drexel Road and the shelter on East Ajo Way, which can support around 100 people with help from Catholic Community Services. 

“This will likely bring to a close one of the most significant humanitarian aid programs undertaken by Pima County and its regional partners in the county’s history,” Lesher wrote then.

As the shelter program came to an end, Lesher praised the county’s efforts. 

“Without the county’s leading role coordinating and obtaining the funding for the Temporary Shelter Program, more than a half-million people over the past six and a half years would have been left to fend for themselves on the streets of Tucson, Nogales, Douglas, and elsewhere in Southern Arizona,” she said. 

“This noble and humane program has involved dozens of county and city of Tucson staff, numerous local governments and nongovernmental agencies, and the kind and tireless contributions of hundreds of volunteers,” Lesher said.