Last week, the Department of Homeland Security, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, announced the allocation of over $380 million of taxpayer funds through the Shelter and Services Program to communities and nonprofits accepting illegal aliens who are awaiting immigration court proceedings.
The money is in addition to another $259 million given to these communities and nonprofits in April for a total of $639 million in five months. The national debt now stands at $35.2 trillion, or $269,000 per taxpayer.
“Through the SSP, DHS directly supports communities that are providing critical support such as food, shelter, clothing, acute medical care, and transportation to noncitizens recently released from DHS custody and awaiting their immigration court proceedings,” the federal government explained in its news release.
The more than half a billion dollars is to “help prevent the overcrowding of short-term CBP holding facilities.”
Last year, more than $780 million awarded through SSP and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program – Humanitarian Awards (EFSP-H). This brings the total for 2023 and 2024 to over $1.3 billion.
“DHS efforts to manage and secure our borders in a safe, orderly, and humane way include support for communities, as well as strengthened consequences for those without a legal basis to remain and an expansion of lawful pathways that have helped reduce the number of encounters from specific populations,” the federal government said. “U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s shows a significant decline in migrant encounters during the first full month after a Presidential Proclamation issued June 4, 2024, by President Biden to temporarily suspend the entry of certain noncitizens across the southern border.”
U.S. Border Patrol encounters in July were 32% lower than in June 2024 and were the lowest monthly total along the southwest border since September 2020. July’s total numbers between ports of entry are also lower than July 2019, and lower than the monthly average for all of 2019, the last comparable year prior to the pandemic,” the government wrote. What the government does not say is that in August of 2023, illegal border crossings reached an all-time high.
The demand for funding from impacted communities far outstrips the grants available, the Department of Homeland Security said in a press release.