Migrant shelters along the border and across the country are closing down as illegal immigration continues to plunge under the Trump administration.
American taxpayers have shelled out hundreds of millions of dollars to various migrant shelter facilities in Texas, California, New York and elsewhere since the border crisis reached its height under the Biden administration. With President Donald Trump prioritizing border enforcement and illegal immigration falling to unprecedented lows, leading to substantially fewer migrants needing care, many of these shelters have no reason to remain open.
“We’ve been preparing for these changes in federal policies and enforcement,” Michael Hopkins,” CEO of Jewish Family Service (JFS) of San Diego, said in a January statement regarding the closing of its migrant shelter. “While there are no longer individuals or families seeking asylum released from short term federal immigration custody to our Shelter Services, we are seeing increased needs for immigration legal assistance and other social service supports to vulnerable San Diegans.”
The JFS-run San Diego Rapid Response Network Migrant Shelter provided services to roughly 250,000 asylum seekers since it opened in 2018, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. This behemoth facility, which was once hailed as a national model for other migrant shelters, received incredible backing from the federal government, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) awarding JFS $22 million in fiscal year 2024 alone.
However, the shelter’s operators say circumstances changed rapidly upon Trump’s return to office. Hopkins revealed that since Trump was inaugurated and immediately shut down the CBP One app for asylum applicants, the shelter has received a grand total of zero new migrants.
The San Diego Rapid Response Network Migrant Shelter is far from the only facility experiencing this trend.
The San Antonio Migrant Resource Center (MRC), in partnership with Catholic Charities, opened in July 2022 and provided shelter for illegal migrants arriving by bus and plane by the hundreds every single day, according to a press release by the City of San Antonio. Since January 2021, the city has served more than 640,00 migrants traveling through to other destinations — costing the city roughly $35 million to operate the MRC.
As fewer and fewer migrants arrive in San Antonio, with arrivals declining by 72% from January 2024 to 2025, city leadership says there’s no reason to keep the shelter open any longer.
“The number of migrants currently arriving at the MRC no longer justifies the cost of running it,” City Manager Erik Walsh said in a statement earlier in February. “At the time, hundreds of migrants were arriving at the San Antonio International Airport and the downtown Greyhound Bus Station daily, with most having no travel arrangements to get to their destinations. That is no longer the case.”
More than 1,000 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, a city once at the epicenter of the national illegal immigration crisis is now closing down its migrant shelters as fewer illegal migrants arrive.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced Friday the impending closure of six emergency shelters for asylum seekers, bringing the total number of migrant shelter closures in NYC from June 2024 to June 2025 to 52. Adams’ office in January confirmed that the number of people in city-run shelters have declined for 27 consecutive weeks.
The immense drop in migrant numbers marks a welcome change for the country’s biggest sanctuary city. Adams said Thursday that more than 230,000 migrants have flocked to the Big Apple since the spring of 2022, costing taxpayers roughly $7 billion and once forcing the mayor to announce major budget cuts in order to shoulder the massive number of illegal migrants.
The shelter closures coincide with incredible drops in migrant encounters along the southern border.
“In the last 24 hours the US Border Patrol has encountered a total of 229 aliens across the entire southwest border,” border czar Tom Homan posted Monday on X. “That is down from a high of over 11,000 a day under Biden. I started as a Border Patrol Agent in 1984 and I don’t remember the numbers ever being that low.”
Since Trump re-entered office, Customs and Border Protection and other government officials have confirmed substantial drops in illegal immigration activity. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Chris Olivarez confirmed to the Daily Caller News Foundation that illegal border crossings along the Texas-Mexico border fell by 85% in January, citing a combination of successful policies by Gov. Greg Abbott and the new Trump administration.
Since resuming the Oval Office, Trump has issued an exhaustive list of executive orders aimed at controlling the border and removing incentives for would-be illegal migrants, such as declaring a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and attempting to end birthright citizenship. His administration has also published a number of internal directives to better equip federal immigration authorities, such as removing barriers for enforcement actions and deputizing agents across many other federal agencies with immigration authorities.
Fear of U.S. tariffs prompted the Mexican government to deploy 10,000 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to help stop the flow of illegal immigration and end the importation of fentanyl, securing an international boundary already bolstered by American troops deployed by the Trump administration. Upon news of Trump’s re-election, many illegal migrants have chosen to turn around, feeling there was no use of even attempting to enter unlawfully any longer.
“President Trump promised a secure border and he is delivering,” Homan said.
The Jewish Family Service and the City of San Antonio did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the DCNF.
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