San Antonio shuttering Migrant Resource Center amid Trump’s immigration crackdown

San Antonio is phasing out operations at its Migrant Resource Center (MRC), which starting Monday won’t accept any new arrivals.

In a statement released Monday morning, City Manager Erik Walsh said the city has experienced a “sustained and significant” drop in migrants passing through San Antonio as they travel to host cities elsewhere in the country.

Established in 2022, the MRC operated as a partnership between the city and Catholic Charities to help asylum seekers who are legally in the country following their release by federal immigration authorities along the border. The center was funded by $47.2 million in grants from the federal government.

“The number of migrants currently arriving at the MRC no longer justifies the cost of running it,” Walsh said in the statement. “Until now, the MRC has served a vital role to ensure the safety and security of both residents and migrants passing through San Antonio. At the time, hundreds of migrants were arriving at the San Antonio International Airport and the downtown Greyhound Bus Station daily, with most having no travel arrangements to get to their destinations. That is no longer the case.”

The closure comes as President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders targeting long-standing programs that give migrants lawful routes to enter the country. Trump, who’s repeatedly vilified immigrants in campaign speeches, has also pledged to carry out the largest mass deportation of undocumented migrants in U.S. history.

“These new executive actions aren’t just limited to unauthorized immigration. In fact, many of them explicitly target legal pathways, which are essential lifelines for those taking safety and opportunity,” Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, CEO of resettlement nonprofit Global Refuge, told The Hill.

The number of migrants traveling through the Alamo City began dropping late last year, city officials said. From last January to the present, the total count plummeted by 72% — or 8,264 to 2,316 people. Over the past seven days, the daily average of migrants arriving at the center has been 12.
As of Monday morning, the MRC housed 88 individuals, according to city officials. Catholic Charities will help those remaining guests make their way to their designated final locations.

Since January 2021, San Antonio has served more than 640,000 legal migrants who passed through the city on their way to host destinations, according to city data.

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This article appears in Jan 22 – Feb 4, 2025.