Migrants from all corners of the globe are being treated to a better life in America. A new government program that costs upwards of $500,000 a month offers families fleeing terrible situations in other countries an opportunity to get on their feet in America. Along the southern border, government agents work with local hospitality organizations to house up to forty-eight migrants a night after they have crossed the border into the United States of America.
Daily Mail recently ran a report about their investigation into two properties in El Centro, California, along the border. The area has become overrun with migrants crossing the border illegally, that the migrant detention center can no longer house them.
The program is funded with the support of the State of California and FEMA. These organizations pay for about one hundred rooms per night at the Ramada at $90 per night and an additional ninety rooms at a Travelodge for $71 per night. These rooms are given to families seeking asylum in America.
In Texas and Arizona, similar programs are operating out of five hotels at the cost of $89 million. These lodgings are being operated by Immigration and Law Enforcement agents. In California, the approach is more humanitarian as it is being operated by staff from Catholic Charities San Diego as well as other support persons from the Department of Social Services.
Alberto Dilla, a thirty-one-year-old case manager from El Centro, describes the ordeal he has been dealing with.
“Every day, we get an email from Border Patrol telling us how many people they’re bringing,” Dilla told Daily Mail. “The van comes to the Ramada, and they have Covid tests. Anyone who is positive stays to quarantine there for ten days. Everyone else gets taken to the Travelodge where we give them food, a place to sleep and arrange travel for them to wherever they want to go.”
In California, these hotel shelters have been operating for three weeks. In addition to giving migrants a place to sleep, the humanitarian workers also provide a bag of basic hygiene items like soap and toothpaste. The local Denny’s restaurant has also been kind enough to donate packed lunches and dinners to the hungry migrants.
Beyond giving these needy people temporary shelter and supplies, the Catholic charity workers also help migrants get to their final destination. They operate shuttle services to Yuma and San Diego and also work with Miles4Migrants, which uses donated air miles to help people travel to where they want to go.
Catholic Charities San Diego CEO Vino Pajanor reported that 712 migrants had used the hotel services so far. On average, about forty-eight people arrive each day.
El Centro has been inundated with border crosses in recent weeks. March 2021 saw 21,759 single adults, 939 families, and 1,047 unaccompanied minors crossing the border into America.
Yorevelis Garcia, a thirty-five-year-old single mother from Venezuela, received an urgent call from a family member in Boston that it was time for her to make the crossing into America.
“My cousin [in Boston] called me a few days ago and said the coyotes [traffickers] are saying Title 42 is over and it’s time to come,” she told DailyMail.com. “She said now is the time, so I grabbed a backpack and my daughter and came to the border.”
What do you think about this influx of migrants at the border?