Alexei Wood
Central American migrants make their way through Mexico to seek asylum at the U.S. border.
The downtown center opened March 30 to provide what was then considered a temporary response to the influx of asylum seekers — primarily from Central America — who were released by federal authorities along the U.S.-Mexico border. However, city officials said the number of asylum seekers entering San Antonio hasn't significantly slowed since then.
"If we continue to see what we averaged over the last 30 days, then we would serve more than 71,000 migrants through the end of 2019," city spokeswoman Laura Mayes said. "At this time, we don’t have any information that the flow of asylum seekers coming to San Antonio will significantly increase or decrease."
San Antonio has operated the site in conjunction with Catholic Charities, the San Antonio Food Bank and Travis Park Church, which provides an overnight shelter for migrants passing through to other locations.
In May, San Antonio's city council approved $141,000 in funding to manage the surge of migrants passing through San Antonio. That payout included $86,000 for the city's nonprofit partners. Another $55,000 was used to match community donations to the organizations on a 1-to-2 basis.
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