The City of Austin is coordinating travel support to help asylum seekers reach their sponsor destinations across the United States. It follows a request for support from the City of San Antonio.
This assistance, which began Friday, has been developed in partnership with the City of San Antonio, which has recently experienced significant fluctuations in the number of people seeking travel from San Antonio. It is important to note that the asylum seekers are legally permitted to move throughout the country, and this partnership is designed to ensure their transit is done in a humane and efficient manner.
“Austin stands ready to support our neighbors in San Antonio as well as those individuals seeking asylum in the United States,” said Juan Ortiz, Director of the City of Austin’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management. “We have a longstanding partnership with San Antonio, and this is our opportunity to return the support they provided us in previous situations. Our goal is to support our neighboring cities, help asylum seekers be able to reach their sponsor destinations safely and with dignity, while also maintaining a busy airport and capacity to continue to respond to local emergency needs.”
The City of Austin will seek full reimbursement from the federal government. It’s unclear how much the effort will cost the city out-of-pocket initially.
Austin will facilitate the travel for people whose asylum claims have completed initial processing, and who are pre-booked for air travel to connect with flights out of the Austin–Bergstrom International Airport to their destinations elsewhere in the United States.
Austin anticipates up to 120 asylum seekers will be arriving on buses from San Antonio each operating day.
Catholic Charities of San Antonio will also be providing the City of Austin with a 24/7 phone helpline for assistance in rebooking asylum seekers who have delayed/missed flights.
