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Tucson Asks For Help With Migrants

Tucson city leaders are asking for help from the community to shelter Central American migrants. 

The city and nonprofit organizations used a donated Benedectine monastery in midtown Tucson as a place to shelter some 7,000 migrants. These were Central American asylum seekers dropped off by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, with immigration court hearings scheduled throughout the country.

Tucson City Councilman Steve Kozachik says that agreement ends in late July.

"So, I don’t want to wait until the 11th hour to start looking for alternate sites," he said.

City leaders plan to ask for individual volunteers and more nonprofit groups to help this Friday. The city recently started providing shelter to some migrants at taxpayer expense in late April when ICE said it would simply drop people off at a central Tucson bus station.

Kozachik said the city has had fewer asylum seekers in recent days but with the apprehension of a group of 230 in the Border Patrol's Tucson Sector on Tuesday, it's clear the situation has not abated.

Fronteras Desk senior editor Michel Marizco is an award-winning investigative reporter based in Flagstaff.