A group of Venezuelan migrants take refuge from the Texas sun under a tree outside San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center. Credit: Michael Karlis

San Antonio mayor Ron Nirenberg told reporters that city council will discuss contingency plans for funding the city’s Migrant Resource Center, whose funds are quickly dwindling, on Thursday, according to KSAT.

Nirenberg’s comments came after his meeting with President Joe Biden last week, in which the two discussed the ongoing border crisis and bipartisan border security bill that Senate Republicans killed in February.

The bill, among other things, would have allocated federal funding to support San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center located at 7000 San Pedro Ave on the city’s Northside.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA] has reimbursed San Antonio for taxpayer funds spent on operating the center, which the Catholic Charities now operate. However, with the bipartisan border security bill stuck in limbo, funds to manage the migrant center are quickly evaporating.

Nirenberg didn’t specify when the Migrant Resource Center would run out of money but did tell KSAT that the city’s resources were “finite.”

“It’s very frustrating, but we’re going to continue to fight to make sure that congressional leaders hear us and that ultimately they do the right thing for the American public,” Nirenberg told the news station.

CEO of Catholic Charities Antonio Fernandez told the San Antonio Report in December that a chunk of the money used at the Migrant Resource Center is used to buy plane and bus tickets for migrants looking to leave San Antonio.

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This article appears in Feb 21 – Mar 5, 2024.

Michael Karlis is a multimedia journalist at the San Antonio Current, whose coverage in print and on social media focuses on local and state politics. He is a graduate of American University in Washington,...