INSIDER
The last group of migrants has departed from San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center, marking the end of the facility’s operations.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg joined the 6 O’Clock News for KSAT Q&A.
The news announced Monday morning about the impending closure of San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center is coming as a relief to at least one woman who lives nearby.
Now is an uncertain time at the Migrant Resource Center in San Antonio as some learn how to navigate what President Trump’s new immigration policies mean for them.
Opened in July 2022 amid an “unprecedented” wave of migrants passing through the city, San Antonio’s Migrant Resource Center could stay open through September 2026.
With migrant arrivals to San Antonio dropping 77% from December to March, city announces closure of Airport Transfer Center.
The federal government will distribute $18 million in grants to five agencies that are providing services to migrants.
With federal funding to support the Migrant Resource Center drying up, the City of San Antonio doesn’t appear to have a clear backup plan yet for how to keep the shelter for asylum-seekers open.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg is pushing for more help with the Migrant Resource Center and said the bipartisan border security bill could bring relief.
The Migrant Resource Center opened on San Pedro Avenue in 2022. It represents a humanitarian issue unfolding behind Shearer Hills/Ridgeview homes.
Many migrants who were unable to get inside the Migrant Resource Center say they're grateful for the kindness of strangers who have provided for them along the way.
LULAC and other volunteers are partnering to make dignity bags full of essentials for children at San Antonio's Migrant Resource Center. Many come with baby wipes, combs, chapstick and journals, but each is individualized depending on age and gender.
If the federal government doesn’t come through next year, Mayor Ron Nirenberg said there’s a real concern with no funding for migrant travel. Asylum seekers could be stranded in San Antonio unless family members can pay for their airfare or bus rides.
City Manager Erik Walsh said city council members were informed the city would use a vacant building at the airport to hold migrants "no more than 24 hours" before their scheduled flights.
It’s been about a month since San Antonio saw an influx of migrants. However, there is still an overflow of people at the Migrant Resource Center on San Pedro.
San Antonio Food Bank volunteers dedicate their mornings daily to help prepare meals for migrants who have made their way from the border and are headed to other destinations.
Residents living behind the migrant resource center on San Pedro Avenue have different feelings about their temporary neighbors.
Hundreds of people find themselves waiting in long lines before continuing on their journey. The City of San Antonio Migrant Dashboard shows nearly 600 migrants were processed on Wednesday but sometimes there are many more people waiting their turn to be processed.
A city spokeswoman said the City of San Antonio, Bexar County, and Catholic Charities were working on contingency plans to help with "transportation assistance" if the Migrant Resource Center's capacity was stretched too thin, but it was not planning on creating a mass shelter.
Though the number of asylum seekers has plummeted in the past two months, the City of San Antonio could end up leaving its Migrant Resource Center open through the end of the year.
The daily number of people passing through the center ranges from under 1,000 to up to 1,800 already, one city official said, and an assistant city manager estimates the number of migrants coming through the MRC will jump by about 30% with the end of Title 42.
Asylum seekers have become a familiar sight outside the Migrant Service Center beneath the shade of nearby storefronts, in a retail parking lot accepting donations or temporary work and at other area locations.
Neighbors and local businesses said they were caught off-guard by the opening of the center, and since then the reception has been a mixture of “not-in-my-neighborhood” to compassion for the asylum seekers.
With hundreds of migrants arriving in San Antonio every day, bussed up from the border, the city opened a Migrant Resource Center ON Thursday to the surprise of residents in the nearby Shearer Hills and Ridgeview neighborhoods.
