Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
SALT LAKE CiTY — Salt Lake County's homeless shelters, which have been dealing with an influx in immigrants seeking assistance, are still packed, advocates say.
As of July 1, three of the primary shelters in Salt Lake County were at 100% capacity, according to figures from the Utah Department of Workforce Services' Office of Homeless Services, same as June 1. The Pamela Atkinson Resource Center, Geraldine E. King Women's Resource Center and the Gail Miller Resource Center had been at 99% capacity as of May 1.
"Yes, all shelters are consistently full," said Wendy Garvin, executive director of Unsheltered Utah, a homeless advocacy group.
That said, the latest federal data from the U.S.-Mexico border, released late last month, shows a dip in border apprehensions, a gauge of immigrants seeking entry into the country via the southern border.
In May, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data, "enforcement encounters" along the border with Mexico totaled 170,723, the lowest monthly figure so far for the fiscal year that started last October and lower than the corresponding numbers for May 2023, 206,690; May 2022, 241,136; and May 2021, 180,597. A press release from the agency referenced President Joe Biden's June 4 executive order limiting allowable asylum requests at the U.S. border, a new rule meant to get control of the numbers of immigrants entering the country.
"Preliminary data of the two weeks since the interim final rule came into effect show a 25% decrease in daily encounters between ports of entry. However, migration flows are dynamic and (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) will continue surging personnel and resources to areas that need them," reads the press release.
Troy Miller, the acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection head, said border enforcement efforts are paying off, despite limited resources. "Our enforcement efforts are continuing to reduce southwest border encounters. But the fact remains that our immigration system is not resourced for what we are seeing," he said in the release.
Enforcement encounters represent the number of immigrants apprehended at the border, deemed inadmissible or processed for expulsion. The figure spiked last December to 302,034, the highest monthly total since March 2020, when the current tracking practices were implemented, figuring in an intense push by many GOP lawmakers and others for tighter border security.
The clamoring has continued, and homeless advocacy groups in Utah reported last month that they were being overwhelmed with requests for help due in part to immigrants coming to the state. It prompted the state, Salt Lake County and Salt Lake City to distribute a flyer in Spanish and English asking asylum seekers to reconsider plans to come to Utah if they don't have friends or family in the state to help them.
The Utah Department of Workforce Services' Office of Homeless Services data on capacity at Salt Lake County shelters doesn't parse those seeking help by migratory status. Garvin, meantime, said immigrants seeking assistance seem to be tapering. "I'm seeing a lot less but still a few," she said.
Even if enforcement encounters for May are lower than the corresponding figures for the prior three years, total encounters for the first eight months of the fiscal year that started last October still surpass the figures for the same periods in fiscal years 2023 and 2022. The figure for the October-through-May period totaled 1,691,251 compared to 1,644,936 in the same period last year and 1,539,314 in the same period the year before that.
