County supervisors move forward on $19.6 million migrant transition center
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SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — San Diego County leaders voted 4-to-1 Tuesday to accept about $19.6 million in federal money for a migrant transition day center.
It will provide shelter, food, hygiene and transportation for immigrants to reach their final destinations within the United States.
Supervisor Jim Desmond was the lone vote against accepting the one-time money, saying it’s not a long-term plan.
“I think we’re just putting a band-aid on a symptom instead of fixing the problem. That problem is, in my mind, the overwhelming numbers and is the federal government’s issue, but we should be vetting them,” Desmond said.
Vice Chair Terra Lawson-Remer was critical of Desmond’s response.
“We don’t want some money that we’re being offered to help fix a problem that we know we have because we want to keep this problem festering to make more politics, I think this is absurd. We all agree that we have to fix the border crisis. We all agree that investment needs to be made in border security and vetting folks,” Lawson-Remer said.
The county will also require any nonprofit contractors to accept all migrants, with a goal of keeping them off the streets.
These San Diego County places are often mispronounced
“We don’t need any federally sponsored homelessness,” Supervisor Joel Anderson said.
Chairwoman Nora Vargas issued a written statement saying:
“The Migrant Transition Day Center will help us close the gap in addressing the global humanitarian crisis at our border. San Diego County is setting a national standard for expediting the asylum process, reducing street releases, and ensuring that asylum-seekers are treated with the utmost dignity as they seek safety and a brighter future.”
According to the county, 136,000 migrants have been released by CBP since mid-September.
When the last migrant assistance shelter closed in late February, many wound up at transit centers or the airport with no help.
“We do want to process them and not have them stay in San Diego County because we can’t handle or manage that, but all we’re doing is we’re just sending them someplace else, we are just moving the problem someplace else,” Desmond said.
The county will soon be accepting proposals for the migrant center through June with a goal of having a contract awarded sometime in July.
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