U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar warns that using federal aid to help migrants travel makes San Antonio a “magnet”

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San Antonio’s migrant aid, which had been dwindling rapidly, will soon get an infusion of $17.8 million from the federal government, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar announced Friday.

But while announcing the money he helped fight for, the Laredo Democrat cautioned cities like San Antonio that their efforts to aid migrants may be contributing to a rise in the number of migrant arrivals.

“My nonprofits in Laredo see the San Pedro site there in San Antonio as the ‘milk and honey center,’ ” he told reporters in a call on Friday. “A lot of the migrants say, carry [on] to San Pedro, not San Pedro, Monterrey, but San Pedro, the center there on San Pedro, by the mall.”

The money San Antonio is receiving will go toward running the Migrant Resource Center on San Pedro Avenue and a holding facility near the airport, as well as feeding migrants while they’re in San Antonio and other efforts put on by the city, Catholic Charities, the San Antonio Food Bank and other groups that help asylum-seeking migrants.

Cuellar, who serves as ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, created the grant program cities use for that type of migrant aid in 2014. However, that money was never intended to help local governments pay to transport migrants to other cities, he suggested on the Friday call.

“I really wish that that [the city] would find sponsors and let the sponsors pay for them, or family members, and not use any of the taxpayers' dollars [on travel],” Cuellar said of San Antonio’s efforts. “To me, if you pay for transportation, it becomes a magnet.”

In 2023, local governments were allowed to use 10% of their federal funds for lodging and transportation, but the Federal Emergency Management Agency has removed those limitations for 2024, according to Cuellar’s office.

Including the new funds, the San Antonio community has received a total of roughly $139 million from the federal government for immigration-related work since January 2021. During that time, an estimated 600,000 migrants have passed through the city, often on their way to friends and family in other destinations, according to the City of San Antonio.

Uncertainty of funding

City leaders had been anxiously watching the last funds they received in 2023 drain down as lawmakers in Washington, D.C. struggled to move past a spending stalemate that held up funding for a number of government agencies, including FEMA.

As a result, Catholic Charities cut back on purchasing travel fares for migrants to help conserve resources for basic shelter needs, and the city was starting to consider whether to pay for some of its migrant aid through local dollars.

San Antonio alone estimated it needs $57 million to continue its work throughout 2024.

Last month, leaders from both groups breathed a sigh of relief when Congress passed a $1.2 trillion spending package with $650 million for FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP) that Cuellar set up in 2014.

But that amount is less than the $800 million in last year’s federal budget, and it’s being spread further than ever before. The SSP program was initially designed just to help border communities, but its funds are now distributed all across the country for cities dealing with an influx of migrants transported up from the U.S.-Mexico border.

The first round of funding for 2024 announced Friday allocated $300 million, and included money for cities like Denver, Chicago and Manhattan. About 23% is going to Texas, Cuellar said.

Additional tranches will be distributed later in the year.

Of San Antonio’s first haul, $10.8 million will go to Catholic Charities of San Antonio, $3 million will go to the City of San Antonio, $2.4 million will go to the San Antonio Food Bank, $500,000 will go to the Interfaith Welcome Coalition, $1 million will go to the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas and $10,000 will go to Corazon Ministries.

“I talked to San Antonio and Laredo, they were asking for more money,” Cuellar told reporters. “I said, ‘Yeah, I understand. But now we don’t compete with only border communities, now you compete with New York, Chicago and other places.'”

A statement from the city expressing appreciation for the funding also indicated an intent to apply for another tranche of SSP funding worth $340.9 million by its June deadline, with “eligible uses” of that funding including “temporary shelter, food, transportation, acute medical care, personal hygiene supplies” and the necessary labor to add to shelter capacity.

Getting to San Pedro

Cuellar said he negotiated money for the SSP program against the preference of his Republican colleagues, who didn’t want to fund it at all this year.

“Republicans are basically saying that nonprofits are filling the last part of the leg that coyotes are not doing,” Cuellar said.

On a recent trip to the border with U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, Cuellar said officials told them migrants are arriving and asking for help getting to the San Pedro migrant resource center.

“For migrants, they get to Laredo, and all they want to do is, ‘No, no, we’ll take a little bit of water and food, but we’re ready to go to San Antonio,’ ” Cuellar said.

“Even though the Laredo people tell them, ‘No, they’re not paying for flights,’ they’ll get on the phone and Skype or FaceTime with somebody in San Antonio who says, ‘Oh, yeah, come on over — come over here to San Pedro,’ ” he added.

Among San Antonio’s requests from the federal government in December was to be able to use more of the federal funds for transporting migrants.

Since migrants seeking asylum don’t have legal authority to work, Mayor Ron Nirenberg and other city leaders have stressed that it’s necessary to help them reach family or friends who can help support them financially.

While Cuellar acknowledged that reality, he said the decision to allow more money for that purpose was made by FEMA.

“When I started this program, I did not intend this to be used for travel to pay for airplanes to get people into the interior,” Cuellar said. “Nevertheless, I know that the mayor and the Catholic Charities say that if they don’t pay for some of those flights, [migrants will] be sleeping in the streets of San Antonio.”

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