Sinema, Kelly Applaud Nomination of Sharad Desai for the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona

Senators secured critical funding to help Arizona border communities manage releases from DHS custody - preventing street releases and keeping families safe

WASHINGTON - Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly announced $47,340,665 in additional funds from the U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Shelter & Services Program (SSP) funds to support Arizona communities managing continued releases from DHS custody.

Earlier this year, Sinema and Kelly announced nearly $55 million in SSP funds for Arizona communities, after securing $650 million for SSP in the Fiscal Year 2024 Department of Homeland Security annual appropriations bill.

Now, new awards have been announced for the remaining $380 million in SSP funding from the Fiscal Year 2024 appropriations, bringing additional SSP funds to Arizona communities. The State of Arizona will receive $19,256,041, Pima County will receive $18,706,639, the Regional Center for Border Health in Yuma will receive $7,545,622, and Borderlands Resource Initiative in Pima County will receive $1,832,363.

"Arizona border communities continue to manage releases from DHS custody. I'm proud to secure critical resources to support our border communities - preventing street releases, providing humane treatment of migrants, and keeping Arizona families safe," said Sinema, Chair of the Senate Border Management Subcommittee and member of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"This conditional approval is important progress for Arizona's growing semiconductor industry and our environment," said Kelly. "By allowing for more flexible solutions to reduce emissions, we can keep creating great-paying jobs while also improving air quality."

In the Fiscal Year 2023 appropriations bill, Sinema and Kelly secured $800 million to create the new Shelter and Services Program (SSP) to help cover the costs incurred by local government agencies and non-governmental organizations to manage migrant encounters at the border.

In February, Sinema and Kelly sent a letter to the leaders of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees urging them to allocate sufficient SSP funding-noting that, without additional funding, organizations managing the fallout of the border crisis would be forced to cease operations, increasing the likelihood that migrants would be released without shelter or support into the streets of local Arizona communities.

SSP funds are used to reimburse local governments and nonprofits who provide shelter, food, transportation, and support services to asylum seekers arriving at Arizona's southern border and processed by CBP. In December, Kelly and Sinema urged the Department of Homeland Security to distribute additional SSP funding to border communities in Arizona and criticized the failure to prioritize border states for SSP funds.