With the surge of migrants at the southern border over the past week, and money for migrant assistance running low, shelters across southern Arizona have been working to keep up with the sheer increase in numbers.
Shelters often serve as the bridge between processed migrants and their next destination including the airport.
On Thursday, Casas Alitas volunteers were seen assisting them as they lined up in line for processing through TSA.
Once processed by Customs and Border Protection and brought to shelters, some migrants end up at the airport where many of them will travel to the city where their sponsor lives, according to one volunteer with Casas Alitas who declined an interview.
While speaking with KGUN 9 he added that some don’t have anyone waiting for them elsewhere.
Peggy Christiansen, the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Douglas, spoke with KGUN 9s Alexis Ramanjulu recently about their efforts to bus migrants from an unnamed shelter to the airport in Tucson.
‘We can only take fifty-six or so migrants to the migrant shelter in Tucson. So the other forty we are trying to get up there through local shuttles,’ she said. ‘It’s a crazy process and an unpredictable one.'”