After two months negotiating with a potential contractor to run a migrant center, San Diego County is going back to the drawing board to select an operator for a transfer center and respite shelter to help recently arrived migrants.
The county and Jewish Family Service of San Diego couldn’t develop a sustainable plan and agreed to end contract talks for the nonprofit to operate the center, they announced Friday.
“Despite best faith efforts, the two parties have been unable to develop a plan to meet the scope of work required to address the needs of migrants in the region based on federal funding criteria and have mutually agreed to end negotiations,” county spokesperson Michael Workman said in a t statement with the organization.
He said the county would continue with its procurement process for these services, but when it would announce a new operator and begin contract talks wasn’t clear.
The Board of Supervisors decided in May to move forward with plans for the migrant center after the county secured $19.6 million in federal funding, and it issued a request for proposals later that week. The county intends to award an 18-month contract for about $18 million, with four one-year options to extend.
To fund the center, the county plans to use part of its federal allocation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, or SSP, which funds humanitarian services to recently arrived migrants.
In July, the county posted a notice online that it had chosen Jewish Family Service, which now operates the region’s longest-running migrant respite shelter.
The organization had worked with other local migrant services groups — including Al Otro Lado, Haitian Bridge Alliance, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, the International Rescue Committee and the Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans — to apply to operate the new center, according to Michael Hopkins, its CEO.
Over the next two months, the county and JFS worked closely to implement a plan for it, Workman said. But on Thursday, the county posted a “notice of rescindment” saying it would no longer be working with the nonprofit.
Jewish Family Service will continue to run the San Diego Rapid Response Network’s Migrant Shelter Services, which provides the most vulnerable asylum seekers — those with medical conditions, families, pregnant women and those who are LGBTQ+ — temporary places to stay and helps them continue on to their final destination in the U.S.
The organization has received nearly $31.9 million in SSP funding this fiscal year, separate from the county’s funding allocation to help recently arrived migrants with services such as shelter, medical care and transportation. Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego, whose local respite shelters have served more than 95,000 migrants during the current federal fiscal year alone, got a similar amount of funding.
“The county and JFS remain longtime partners on many initiatives and look forward to future collaboration opportunities,” Hopkins said. “We remain committed to working with all levels of government to ensure no one in our community stands alone.”
Efforts to establish the migrant center began as a growing number of asylum seekers began arriving in San Diego County. As many as 154,000 migrants were released onto local streets from last September to May.
While the number of migrant encounters was down nearly 40 percent in July from the previous month, San Diego was still the busiest Border Patrol sector along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Officials have attributed the drop to President Joe Biden’s executive order restricting access to asylum.
The drop-off means that local migrant shelters operated by Jewish Family Service and Catholic Charities have had the capacity to take in migrants who have been newly released after being processed by Border Patrol — essentially eliminating street releases entirely for the time being.
But local migrant services groups say that despite the fall-off in border crossings, there is still an urgent need to ensure everyone seeking asylum is treated with respect and dignity.
Staff writer Alexandra Mendoza contributed to this report.
