In a pressing fiscal crunch, San Diego County’s $6 million fund to assist incoming migrants with transportation and other services is teetering on the brink of insolvency, as revealed by Supervisor Jim Desmond, with expectations of the money drying up by this Thursday. The county has been wrestling with this issue since allocating the funds back in September to aid the migrant surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. According to a report by KPBS, Desmond warned that without further federal intervention, San Diego could see an uptick in individuals stranded at airports and on streets, as he underscored that these local tax dollars should have been earmarked for other critical issues such as homelessness and public safety.
The welcome center, operated by the nonprofit SBCS and offering migrants services like Wi-Fi, food, and transportation, may cease operations well ahead of its intended March closing date due to the increased arrival rate of migrants, which has now soared from a steady stream of 300-400 to a deluge of 800-900 per day, straining resources beyond their means, according to findings from the San Diego Union-Tribune, with Kathie Lembo, SBCS President and CEO, stating, “As the number of migrants arriving at the center has increased significantly over the last few weeks, our finite resources have been stretched to the limit.”
This situation pressures the federal government to provide immediate assistance and potentially use federal properties to house migrants temporarily. Desmond stated the funds, initially intended to last until the end of March, are now estimated to evaporate weeks early. The funds have been critical in enabling the temporary center, which has served nearly 100,000 migrants since it opened, providing a brief respite before they press on to their ultimate destinations despite this the center was set up to offer only temporary relief, with the understanding that federal aid would eventually be necessary to maintain such an initiative.
Supervisor Desmond's calls for federal intervention are echoed by what was reported by his post on X, expressing his belief that the burden of the crisis falls on the federal government he says, "This failure lies squarely at the feet of the federal government," while also pointing out the irony that the more money was spent, the number of migrants seemed to increase, exacerbating the county’s existing homelessness issues, meanwhile, as reported by San Diego Union-Tribune, local organizations like the American Friends Service Committee are scrambling to develop an emergency response plan, its director Pedro Ríos remarks, “The will is there, but we do not know if the resources are there.”
The County of San Diego is on the brink of depleting the $6 million in local tax dollars utilized to fund transportation and other items for migrants entering the country. I have consistently opposed using local funds for federal responsibilities, as I firmly believe that local…
— Supervisor Jim Desmond (@jim_desmond) February 19, 2024
