After negotiations with a local migrant services group fell through, San Diego County has selected a Virginia-based company to help establish and operate its new migrant transfer center. The county posted a notice online Wednesday that it would enter contract negotiations with the Providencia Group to operate the center to help recently arrived migrants. Since 2022 the company, which specializes in humanitarian operations and disaster response, has been operating a similar migrant services center in El Paso, Texas. San Diego County’s efforts to establish its own permanent migrant center began in May, when supervisors decided to use $19.6 million in federal funding to move forward with plans. The board had previously decided last fall, with migrant arrivals rising, to spend $6 million to operate a temporary migrant center. That facility closed in February when funding ran out. If negotiations for the new center succeed, the county intends to award the Providencia Group an 18-month contract for about $18 million, with four one-year options to extend. The county had originally in July chosen Jewish Family Service of San Diego — which runs the region’s longest-running respite shelter — to operate the new day center but said last week they had mutually agreed to end talks. County officials said they could not comment on the announcement of the new operator, as they have entered the five-day protest period and are opening negotiations. The Providencia Group could not immediately be reached for comment. To fund the center, the county plans to use part of its federal allocation from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program, or SSP, which funds humanitarian services to recently arrived migrants. Some local migrant services groups have already voiced concerns about the choice of a non-local contractor. “There have already been doubts, questions and deficiencies in the services provided (locally) to families who have ended up on the streets or faced unnecessary risks,” said Adriana Jasso, program coordinator for the U.S.-Mexico border program of the American Friends Service Committee. For more than a year, she and other volunteers have been providing humanitarian aid to migrants waiting to be picked up by U.S. Customs and Border Protection for processing in an area between the border fences near the San Ysidro port of entry. Jasso worries an outside group unfamiliar with the region and its support networks could cause even more alarm. She wants funds go to a group that will be vigilant in ensuring support goes to migrants who need it most. Board Chair Nora Vargas acknowledged these concerns in a statement to The San Diego Union-Tribune on Friday. “I worked hard on behalf of our communities to secure this funding, and I am deeply concerned that it be used in collaboration with local organizations to make a meaningful impact in supporting asylum seekers,” Vargas said. “I understand the concerns being raised, and while a firewall prevents elected officials from influencing the process, I will be closely monitoring the outcomes.” Jewish Family Service declined to comment and referred to a previous statement from its CEO. “We remain committed to working with all levels of government to ensure no one in our community stands alone,” Michael Hopkins said. That organization will continue to run the San Diego Rapid Response Network’s Migrant Shelter Services, which provides the most vulnerable asylum seekers — those with medical conditions, families, pregnant women and those who are LGBTQ+ — temporary places to stay and helps them continue on to their final destination in the U.S. Related Articles News | Supervisor Desmond, former San Diego Border Patrol chief testify at House hearing News | Runners cross from San Ysidro into Tijuana as part of binational half marathon News | Who will run a new migrant aid center? After months of talks, county is back to the drawing board News | An Ohio city reshaped by Haitian immigrants lands in an unwelcome spotlight News | Migrant families find refuge in a Barrio Logan school: ‘The torment is over’ The number of migrant encounters in the San Diego border region has fallen sharply following President Joe Biden’s executive order restricting access to asylum, dropping by 43 percent from June to August, CBP data show. But the sector remained the busiest along the U.S.-Mexico border in August, according to data released this week by CBP. The drop-off means that local migrant shelters operated by Jewish Family Service and Catholic Charities have had the capacity to take in migrants who have been newly released after being processed by Border Patrol — essentially eliminating street releases entirely for the time being. “I think that the service providers and nonprofit organizations in our community have done a terrific job,” Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat from San Juan Capistrano who represents parts of coastal North County, told the Union-Tribune on a phone call Wednesday before the county’s announcement. “The Shelter and Services Program is a federal mechanism to help fund much of that work, and I have been an advocate that we want to get as much of that SSP money as necessary to the San Diego region,” he added. But he highlighted how things have changed since Biden’s order. “We haven’t had a single street release in San Diego County in over two months,” he said. The Providencia Group in 2021 was awarded multimillion-dollar federal contracts to provide reunification case management services for unaccompanied migrant children in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, according to its website. It was awarded a contract in 2022 to set up, staff and run El Paso County’s migrant support services center, which now serves roughly 600 people a day, officials say. The El Paso region got about $26 million in total SSP funding this fiscal year through the SSP program, some of which was used to fund their migrant center. The San Diego border region has gotten nearly $82.9 million, most of which was split between the two local groups already operating respite shelters: Jewish Family Service and Catholic Charities Diocese of San Diego.