Help is on the way for the City of San Antonio, and for Catholic Charities, both of which have been overwhelmed in recent weeks trying to deal with illegal immigrants and asylum seekers who have been released by the Border Patrol into the city, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Sen John Conryn (R-Texas) told News Radio 1200 WOAI that the just passed federal supplemental appropriations bill includes some $30 million to reimburse Texas cities and non profits for the costs of dealing with the asylum seekers.
"Most recently, a number of Africans were sent by Homeland Security to San Antonio, and I was recently told by a collegague that a large number of those were transported to Maine," Cornyn said.
The City, Catholic Charities, a Mennonite group, and other non profits provided food and housing to the immigrants and paid for their plane tickets to Maine, which aren't cheap.
"I talked to the mayors of Laredo and McAllen, and, of course, we have heard the Mayor of San Antonio talking about the costs of taking care of these migrants," he said.
The migrants are among the flood of immigrants arriving in South Texas is recent months from all over the world. They have stretched thin the Border Patrol's ability to house them, and, as a consequence, many have simply been taken into San Antonio and other cities and dropped off.
The Border Patrol says more deliveries of illegal immigrants into Texas cities as far away from the border as Dallas is expected in the coming weeks.