The number of asylum-seeking migrants arriving in San Antonio is the lowest it’s been in three years, but City Council on Thursday voted overwhelmingly in favor of keeping infrastructure the city set up to feed, shelter and transport migrants.
Most significantly, the city will maintain the Migrant Resource Center (MRC) it scrambled to open on San Pedro Avenue during the summer of 2022 amid a dramatic uptick in migrant arrivals.
The center solved a problem of migrants sleeping in downtown parks and crowding the airport and Greyhound station but has long drawn complaints from nearby Shearer Hills and Ridgeview residents.
Though the number of migrants arriving has now been trending downward for months, City Council members say they still want to keep a resource center open to be prepared should numbers rise again.
“There was a time we didn’t have the MRC, and what we had downtown was chaos,” said Councilman Manny Pelaez (D8). “We’ve already lived that chapter.”
Arrivals along the Texas border have declined almost 80% over the past five months, according to a presentation by the city’s Department of Human Services.
For San Antonio, that translated to roughly 5,000 migrants arriving in April, compared to more than 25,000 in December of 2023.
Federal funding
In March, when the FEMA grant that funds migrant aid for cities across the country was running dry, the City Council started considering its options to reduce services.
Some of those cost-saving mechanisms have already been implemented, but the federal money is now once again flowing, and the council voted 10-1 Thursday in favor of continuing to apply for and accept the money.
The move allows the city’s Department of Human Services to apply for roughly $18.8 million that the city and nonprofits could spend any time before September 2026. It also allows the city to accept $3 million in reimbursement for migrant aid that has already been performed.
“This is really simple,” Pelaez said. “If we don’t vote yes on this today, then that money isn’t used to compensate us for the costs that we’ve already paid.”
Councilman Marc Whyte (D10) cast the only no vote, saying he wanted a real conversation about the merits of keeping the MRC open.
As the council’s lone conservative, he said his office receives calls from residents all across the city who are concerned about whether the operating the center is leading to more migrants being dropped off in San Antonio.
“The overwhelming majority of those calls have requested — and I continue to push for — the conversation over whether or not having this MRC in San Antonio is a good idea,” Whyte said.
Migrant Resource Center here to stay
The city’s lease agreement for the MRC runs through June 2032 but includes flexibility for the city to end it before then if needed.
A second migrant holding center near the airport was shut down at the beginning of the month due to decreased need.
In March the council discussed the possibility of moving the MRC to a less residential area, amid other discussions about potential cost-saving options.
“There’s an opportunity to think about a more permanent facility that isn’t behind somebody’s house,” Councilman Jalen McKee-Rodriguez (D2) said at the time. “I think that’s fair, and I would ask that we do explore that.”
On Thursday Jessica Dovalina, assistant director of the city’s Department of Human Services, told the San Antonio Report the city plans to maintain the San Pedro Avenue location for the foreseeable future.
“We’ve worked to scale back operations, and Catholic Charities has done the same, so we’ll be in a good place [on cost],” said Dovalina, who pointed to cuts the city made to the San Antonio Police Department’s services at the MRC.
The city’s migrant aid operations currently cost about $800,000 per month, down from $1.2 million per month when it was serving a larger number of migrants, she said.
The city already has enough money to keep going at the current rate through November. It’s unclear how long the new funds, if awarded, will last.
“We’re ready to scale up if there’s a surge, and we feel prepared to do that,” Dovalina said.
