No help for McAllen with immigrant costs

Posted: Monday, November 14, 2016 9:00 pm
MITCHELL FERMAN | STAFF WRITER

McALLEN — The city has spent nearly a half-million dollars since April 2014 on immigration humanitarian work but has not yet been reimbursed by the federal government.

McAllen looked into getting reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but FEMA didn’t deem this a natural disaster, Mayor Jim Darling said. The city is working with Sen. John Cornyn and U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, to find other forms of reimbursement.

“It’s not fair to our taxpayers (to not get reimbursed),” Darling said. “But what are you going to do? These people need help and we can’t just let them wander around our town, or worse.”

Catholic Charities have also pitched in about $2 million in expenses, but they also get some donations.

April 2014 is when immigration spiked and that following summer it became a national conversation. But the immigration surge hasn’t slowed down. Actually, the Humanitarian Respite Center at Sacred Heart Catholic Church downtown reached a record in October with more than 5,600 individuals helped, according to the latest data.

That’s more than a 300 percent increase compared to the same month in the last two years. The last three months have been the busiest for the center since it opened in June of 2014 during a surge of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America coming through the Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol sector.

Despite international efforts to divert illegal immigration from Central America, family units surpassed those of 2014 in September with more than 77,000 apprehensions reported during Fiscal Year 2015-16, which ended on Sept. 30.

“We’ll continue to seek reimbursements,” Darling said. “Until the United States decides to do something about its immigration policy and foreign policy in Central America, we do think it’s a continuation of the process. CBP cooperates with us, otherwise we’d have people walking around the city of McAllen at night with no place to go, and/or worse.

“No. 1, I don’t think there’s an alternative to what we’re doing.

No. 2, I think we are doing a service to Dallas and Houston and everywhere else people are going because they leave here in better conditions than they’re delivered to our bus station. And thank God they don’t leave the way they arrived after their long journey to get here.”

Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of the center, said the record numbers have put a strain on their resources and they are in need of donations and volunteers. The center is located at 306 S. 15th Street and can be reached at (956) 874-4677.

mferman@themonitor.com

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