Austin to help relocate asylum seekers from San Antonio Migrant Resource Center as Title 42 ends

With Title 42 now expired, Austin city officials pledged to bus 250 asylum seekers out of San Antonio weekly to help with potential overcrowding at its Migrant Resource Center (MRC), Austin TV station KXAN reports.

Austin announced the move Thursday mere hours before the expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era emergency order that allowed the U.S. to deny asylum seekers entry due to pandemic health risks.

Under Austin’s program,  asylum seekers will be transported directly from the MRC to Bergstrom International Airport, where they’ll fly to other cities to be reunited with family members or find more permanent housing, according to KXAN’s report.

“That’s going to help [San Antonio] by being able to move asylum seekers to their sponsor’s hometown and be able to bring the number that are in the Migrant Resource Center down to the level they can handle,” Juan Ortiz, Austin’s director of homeland security and emergency management, told the station.

Austin doesn’t have a migrant center of its own, meaning that only asylum seekers with a plane ticket in hand will be allowed to board the busses, KXAN reports.

Around 650,000 migrants are expected to cross the U.S.-Mexico border following the end of Title 42, which expired at 11:59 p.m. Thursday, according to the National Sheriff’s Office.

“San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center is operating at capacity,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg said in a statement to the Current. “Frankly, we can’t predict the ultimate impact when Title 42 is lifted. But, we have years of experience dealing with migrants who are legally seeking asylum, and we are experienced in adapting to cope with any situation that might arise.”

Earlier this month, Democratic U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar, both of whom represent the Alamo City, said they helped secure $38 million in funding for the MRC in anticipation of the surge in border crossings.

The majority of that money will go to Catholic Charities, which operates the center. Without that funding, the MRC would have run out of cash by month’s end, the congressmen said.

“San Antonio is a model for the country on how to do this well,” Casar told the Current. “The city has been a real leader on compassionate immigration policies, and we want to make sure that continues.”

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This article appears in May 3-16, 2023.