End of Title 42: Arizona appropriated $20 million for border emergencies

Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs announced a five-point preparedness approach outlining Arizona 's priorities for managing the expected influx of immigrants, for the purpose of Title 42 enforcement and a $20 million allocation to address emergencies caused by the massive arrival of migrants on the southern border of the state.

Title 42 is a Trump-era policy that allows Border Patrol to easily remove migrants, which the former president argued was necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19. The end of the policy under the supervision of President Joe Biden was delayed by court rulings, but it has already been announced that it will cease to apply next Thursday.

Hobbs is creating a joint information command center to prepare for the expected influx of undocumented immigrants with pending asylum claims that may arrive at the state's southern border.

Hobbs announced the command center Monday morning and laid out a broad five-point approach to the state's preparations in a statement.

Included within those priority areas of the Arizona plan are: ensuring public safety, containing potential drug trafficking, partnerships with local agencies and non-profit organizations for the care of migrants, transportation of migrants, funding for shelters and possibly the issuance of executive orders.

Arizona will also allocate more than $20 million dollars to respond to any type of emergency that arises on the southern border after the end of the implementation of Title 42, which allows the express expulsion of migrants.

The Democratic governor made the announcement in the middle of a visit to the Casa Alitas shelter in Tucson, where she explained that the state has already allocated $7 million dollars to transport migrants from the border to shelters located in large cities to mitigate the impact of the arrival of massive amounts of immigrants in the small cities of the border and to later transport them to other states, where their relatives or sponsors are.

He added that he is looking for another $15 million dollars to be allocated for the transport and shelter of migrants, in the next state budget.

“Since yesterday we began to implement another five new transportation routes, especially those that include communities far from the city,” Hobbs said about the measure to transfer migrants to shelters from areas as remote as Naco.

Hobbs assured: “My message to the border communities is this: we are with you. We are here to support you. But like I said before, we can't do this alone. My office will continue to press the federal government to do its job and get us the help we need before Title 42 is lifted."

My message to border communities is this: we stand with you. We are here to support you.

But as I have said before, we cannot do this alone. My office will continue to pressure the federal government to do it’s job and get us the help we need ahead of the lifting of Title 42.

— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) May 9, 2023

While the Democrat was speaking about the emergency plan that the state will implement, two trucks with at least 150 migrants arrived at the shelter located in the south of the border city of Tucson.

Among the migrants were several women and children, between the ages of five and seven.

For her part, Teresa Cavendish, representative of the Casa Alitas migrant shelter, said that in southern Arizona there are currently six centers where migrants are received, which are working practically at their maximum capacity.

“We are receiving an average of between 600 to 850 migrants a day, we anticipate that this number will increase this weekend,” Cavendish said.

He assured that they are working to respond to any emergency that may arise, which includes the opening of more shelters if necessary.

Cavendish also referred to the run-over outside a shelter in Texas last Sunday, which left eight dead and 10 injured, and assured that they are taking the security of shelters in southern Arizona very seriously.

Casa Alitas Hostel is a closed hostel that has a fence around it, as well as a secure entrance door.

In this sense, Governor Hobbs assured that no type of attack against migrant shelters in Arizona will be allowed and any type of incident will be investigated and the law will be applied in its entirety.