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Officials with the City of San Antonio and Catholic Charities of San Antonio have both said they will comply with a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to send the information they have on all migrants who traveled through the Centro de Bienvenida Migrant Resource Center (MRC).
“The Department of Homeland Security has significant concerns that [Shelter and Services Program] funding is going to entities engaged in or facilitating illegal activities,” the FEMA letter said. “The Department is concerned that entities receiving payment under this program may be guilty of encouraging or inducing an alien to come to, enter, or reside in the United States in violation of law.”
If the city and Catholic Charities don’t send that information within 30 days of the letter being sent out, FEMA said it would not give them the millions of dollars in reimbursements they’re still owed for running the MRC.
In a statement, City Manager Erik Walsh said the city would comply with the request.
“The FEMA letter states nothing specific to the City of San Antonio or activities at the Migrant Resource Center (MRC), which stopped accepting new arrivals on Feb. 3, 2025,” he said in the statement. “Rather, the letter expresses concerns generally that Shelter and Services Programs have been used to engage in or facilitate ‘illegal activities.’ We understand that other entities have received similar letters. FEMA has requested that we respond and provide additional information, and we will do so.”
Catholic Charities Executive Director Antonio Fernandez said the request almost certainly won’t result in the federal government learning anything about those migrants they didn’t already know.
“Every single person’s name, every single number, was already given to the government,” he said.
Catholic Charities operated the MRC for years until the city decided to shut down the facility last month over what Walsh said at the time was a major drop in traffic to the MRC.
Some of the information FEMA requested was addresses of migrants who traveled through the MRC. Fernandez said Catholic Charities was never tasked with tracking addresses, and it does not have that information to give the federal government.
“We were not required to get that, [and it] never was ever part of the agreement between not-for-profits — not just Catholic Charities — any not-for-profits and the U.S. government,” he said.
All migrants who traveled through the MRC had to first turn themselves into the Border Patrol at the border and receive a court date, which authorized them to be in the U.S. temporarily.
Fernandez said the hold on reimbursements has been harmful for Catholic Charities, which has faced funding cuts and layoffs in recent months.
“For us it has been always compliance with the law, always helping, anytime that we had a call from any federal entity or local authorities to help with any case with immigration, we’ve always been there, but that's because we've been asked to help with these families, and that's what we have done,” he said. “And you know, for me, it is that we did what we agreed to do, what the government asked us to do, and now it's taking forever for us to get reimbursed, putting a lot of stress on Catholic Charities.”
