Casa Alitas and another shelter in Arizona close due to Trump cuts

• Trump’s funding cuts suspend funds for migrant shelters.
• Casa Alitas closes after years of service.
• Activists denounce impact on human rights.

Two migrant shelters in Arizona, including Casa Alitas, have closed their doors.

This center, considered one of the main models of assistance for other facilities along the Mexico border, ceased operations due to funding cuts ordered by the President of the U.S., Donald Trump, Pima County reported this Thursday.

«It is sad that our government ends a tradition of helping those most in need,» Kat Rodríguez, an activist who worked for many years at Casa Alitas in Tucson, told EFE.

The shelters provided temporary accommodation and transportation services to asylum seekers after they were processed and released by the Border Patrol.

ARIZONA SHELTERS CLOSE DUE TO PRESIDENT TRUMP’S CUTS

«Compassion for human beings is being eliminated by political interests, and that is very unfortunate,» the activist said.

John Lesher, Pima County Administrator, detailed that since last Monday, after Donald Trump was sworn in for the second time as president, the Border Patrol stopped taking migrants to the shelter.

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EFE confirmed today during a visit to Casa Alitas that there are no migrants, and its doors, which were always open, are now closed with no movement of cars or buses.

This, Lesher assures, puts Pima County in a precarious situation, as even though there are no migrants in the shelters, they still incur operational and running costs.

The impact of Trump’s cuts

On his first day as president, Trump signed a series of executive orders.

Among them, he included one that suspends funding for assistance programs of the Shelter Services Program (SSP), from the Department of Homeland Security.

Additionally, SSP does not pay for the maintenance of shelters while there are no migrants.

The closure of the Casa Alitas shelter is a hard blow for those like Rodríguez who have fought for years to defend the rights of migrants.

A blow to humanity and rights

The operation system of Casa Alitas served as a model for other shelters that opened in other border states to assist migrants.

«We see that we will have a very hard four years, the closure of the border, the closure of the shelters will not end irregular migration,» the activist asserted.

Pima County estimates that in the last six years these shelters have provided assistance to over half a million migrants.

Thus, they prevented these individuals from being left helpless on the streets.

*With EFE information.

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