The Trump administration has kept sending people who are in the country illegally to non-government shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border, even though they were told that giving migrants temporary housing and other help might be against the law and be used to punish people who bring in illegal goods.
A letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) caused a stir at border shelters, which have long offered shelter, food, and rides to the nearest bus station or airport. The letter raised “significant concerns” about possible illegal activity and asked for detailed information as part of a broad investigation. FEMA said shelters may have broken the law by illegally moving people within the United States or bringing them across the border.
“That was pretty scary.” “I’m not going to lie,” Rebecca Solloa, who runs Catholic Charities Diocese of Laredo, said.
Even after the March 11 letter, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement kept asking shelters in Texas and Arizona to house people. This put the shelters in the awkward situation of having to do something that FEMA seemed to say might be against the law. The Department of Homeland Security is in charge of both groups.
After getting the letter, ICE sent eight to ten people a day to Catholic Charities until April 25, when the shelter in the Texas border city had to close because it was losing money, Solloa said.
CEO Michael Smith said that the Holding Institute Community in Laredo has been taking about 20 families a week from ICE’s family detention camps in Dilley and Karnes City, Texas. They are from China, Iran, Papua New Guinea, Russia, and Turkey.
The executive head of Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, Ruben Garcia, said that the organization has been getting five to ten people a day from ICE. These people come from Honduras and Venezuela.
A person familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about information that has not been made public said that the International Rescue Committee did not get a letter but is still getting people from ICE in Phoenix. Some of the people who were released were being held at ICE’s Krome Detention Center in Miami, which was very crowded.
Dealing with issues that are at odds with each other
They asked for things that seemed “a little bit of a contradiction” to Solloa, but Catholic Charities agreed. She said that some guests had been in ICE detention centers for two to four weeks after being caught in the middle of the country and then released by an immigration judge while their cases to stop being deported went through the courts. Some had been flown from San Diego after breaking the law and crossing the line.
Solloa said that the people who were freed were from India, China, Pakistan, Turkey, and Central and South America.
Smith, a Methodist pastor, said the FEMA letter was scary and that agreeing to keep caring for people who had been freed by ICE was “probably not a good idea.” It was still a simple choice.
He said, “Somethings are just right to do.”
A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security Department named Tricia McLaughlin made a difference with large-scale releases that happened under Joe Biden, who was president before Trump. The Biden administration worked closely with shelters, but when they were very busy, they would let refugees go at bus stops and other public places.
When ICE is told to release an illegal alien from custody under the Biden administration, McLaughlin said, “ICE does not simply release them onto the streets of a community; ICE works to verify a sponsor for the illegal alien, usually family members or friends but sometimes a non-governmental organization.”
There have been political, financial, and practical problems that have made it hard for the government to quickly deport people from some countries. Due to these problems, ICE has had to send people back to countries other than their own, such as El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and now South Sudan. ICE might have to let people back into the United States if those choices aren’t available.
In immigration court, people can fight deportations, but when they are stopped at the border, they have a lot less choices. ICE usually has no choice but to let them go if a judge grants their request.
Families are also a problem. A long-standing court order says that ICE can’t hold families with children under 18 for more than 20 days. On Thursday, the Trump administration said it would try to end this rule.
The Trump administration has said that giving people who cross the border illegally warnings to appear in immigration court has almost completely stopped. From February to April, the Border Patrol only let seven people go. This is less than the 130,368 people they let go during the same time last year under President Joe Biden. But those numbers don’t include ICE because their data isn’t open to the public.
Strong links between shelters and the federal government
In the fiscal year of 2024, FEMA gave $641 million to dozens of state and local governments and groups across the country to help them deal with the large number of people who came across the border from Mexico.
During its review, FEMA has stopped paying shelters and asked them to give “a detailed and descriptive list of specific services provided.” Executive officers have to swear that they don’t know of or have any reason to believe that anyone in their companies is breaking the law on smuggling.
The documents show that border shelters have usually kept close, if friendly, ties with federal immigration officials on the ground, even when higher-ups have criticized them in public.
We get along well with our government partners and work well together. He said, “We always have.” “If they asked us to help, we would, but at some point we would have to say, ‘You know what? I don’t have any more money for this.'” “Our agency is in pain, and I’m sorry, but we can’t do this anymore.”
Since it opened in 2021, Catholic Charities’ Laredo shelter has housed at least 120,000 people. On its busiest nights in 2023, it held between 600 and 700 people. It thought FEMA would give it up to $7 million. When the shelter closed, it lost almost $1 million because it didn’t get any money from FEMA.
Holding Institute, which is part of United Women in Faith, has cut its paid staff and volunteer group from 45 to seven because it doesn’t get any more government money, Smith said. It sends most meals without protein to save money. Language barriers have made things hard.
In a statement, the International Rescue Committee said that it plans to keep helping people in Phoenix who have been freed.
It said, “As the size and scope of these needs change, the IRC remains committed to making sure that people have access to basic humanitarian services, such as food, water, hygiene supplies, and information.”
