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New Housing For Asylum Seekers To Open In Tucson

A tent-like facility to house migrants will go up near the Tucson International Airport in the coming weeks, according to a Tucson Border Patrol official.

The facility will be located between the airport and Interstate 10, and is scheduled to be completed by the beginning of May.

The facility is designed to hold 500 people, but COVID-19 restrictions will cap the capacity at about 200 for the time being.

The Casa Alitas shelter in Tucson, which helped house thousands of asylum seekers in 2019, will also be in use in the coming months.

The Border Patrol reported more than 170,000 encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border last month, including nearly 20,000 in the Tucson sector.

Vaughan Jones was a reporter at KJZZ from 2020 to 2022.