$380M from DHS to be given to states, NGOs in support of migrants

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The Biden administration announced last week that it’s providing $380 million to nonprofits and local governments to cover some of the costs associated with taking care of migrants once they’ve been released by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the southern border.

The huge sum is being awarded by DHS via its Shelter and Services Program (SSP), which aims to provide "critical support" for migrants by way of offering them food, shelter, clothing, acute medical care, and transportation while they await their immigration court proceedings. 

DHS says the money helps prevent overcrowding at short-term Customs and Border Protection (CBP) holding facilities and enables non-federal entities to "off-set allowable costs incurred for services associated with noncitizen migrant arrivals in their communities."

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Migrants walk along the highway through Suchiate, Chiapas state, in southern Mexico, on Sunday, July 21, 2024, during their journey north toward the U.S. border. ( AP Photo/Edgar H. Clemente)

The $380 million grant comes just four months after the agency disseminated a tranche of $259.13 million in SSP grants, bringing the total this year to nearly $640 million. 

In fiscal year 2023, more than $780 million was awarded to organizations and cities across the country which are inundated with migrants who have nowhere to live and are unable to work. 

The influx has overwhelmed social and health services across many big cities, and local governments have used taxpayer money to put migrants up in hotels or shelters. Under the Biden administration there were more than 2.4 million migrant encounters in fiscal year 2023, and that mark could be broken by the end of fiscal year 2024, although DHS says monthly numbers have decreased.

The $380 million grant is being divided between a total of 50 nonprofits, municipalities and government entities.

The biggest beneficiary of the allotment is New York City, a sanctuary city, which is being given nearly $22.17 million via its Office of Management, while Los Angeles is taking $21.84 million and Arizona is in line for $19.25 million.

Maricopa County and Pima County, both in Arizona, are splitting nearly $38 million in funds. 

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Migrants are seen at the southern border on May 23, 2024. (Bill Melugin/Fox News)

In terms of nonprofit organizations, Jewish Family Service San Diego is being awarded $22.1 million, the Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego is set to get $21.6 million, while Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio in Texas is getting $19.26 million. 

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey lauded the fact that her state is securing $15.4 million in competitive funding and $4.9 million in reserve funding.

"Massachusetts ‘wins’ $20 million in federal funding to support family shelter costs," an Aug. 28 press release from Healey reads. 

"This is the largest award Massachusetts has won from this program to date, as the state and city previously won a total of $9 million."

Healey says the money will help Boston manage costs for sheltering migrants and praised the Biden-Harris administration for reducing illegal border crossings. 

"The Biden-Harris administration has taken important steps to address this federal problem in light of Congress’s failure to act, and they are seeing results with illegal border crossings down significantly," Healey said in the statement. "But more needs to be done. Congress needs to step up and pass the bipartisan border security agreement."

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey pauses to look at the Army cots set up on the gym floor as state and local officials toured the Melnea A. Cass Recreational Complex, which was used as a temporary migrant shelter in May 2024. (Getty Images)

DHS says that Border Patrol encounters in July dropped 32% compared to June, the lowest monthly total along the southwest border since September 2020. July’s total numbers between ports of entry are also lower than July 2019, and lower than the monthly average for all of 2019, the last comparable year prior to the pandemic, DHS says.

The agency says the dip follows a June 4 Presidential Proclamation by President Biden, which temporarily suspended the entry of certain noncitizens at the southern border once the number of average border encounters exceeds 2,500 a day over seven days. 

But the DHS funding will not plug the massive hole in city coffers decimated by illegal migration.

In Massachusetts, Republicans say the state has spent $1 billion "in secret migrant crisis spending" and have called Healey to provide a detailed cost breakdown of the toll that the migrant crisis has caused for the state's residents.

In New York, the comptroller estimated that the migrant crisis will cost state taxpayers $4.3 billion through 2025, and New York City taxpayers $3 billion in fiscal year 2024 alone, according to the New York Post. 

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It also doesn’t account for the $4 billion the Biden administration announced it was sending to Central America in March to "address the root causes" of illegal immigration.

Meanwhile, a study by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimated the net cost of illegal immigration for the United States – at the federal, state, and local levels – was at least $150.7 billion at the start of 2023.

FAIR arrived at the figure by subtracting the tax revenue paid by illegal immigrants – just under $32 billion – from the gross negative economic impact of illegal immigration, $182 billion.