TUCSON, Arizona (13 News) – The entire asylum seeker program administered by Pima County for the past five years is coming under scrutiny because of a contract approved for laundry services.
Two people who have worked for Catholic Community Service since its inception are no longer with the agency. One was laid off and the other has resigned.
Catholic Community Services is the agency used by Pima County to manage its day-to-day operations, which once included feeding, transporting, and housing up to 1,500 asylum seekers daily.
The laundry service was set up when the number of asylum seekers exceeded the capacity of the system.
The owner of the laundry in Amado was the mother of the Casa Alitas employee who had resigned.
There is no evidence of wrongdoing, but due to family ties, this was a conflict of interest that forced Catholic Community Services to intervene.
“This is not a reviewed or approved contract or anything like that from Pima County,” said Adelita Grijalva, chair of the Pima County Board.
Yet Pima County has been the federal conduit for more than $90 million used to house, feed and transport more than 500,000 legally-approved asylum seekers who have passed through Tucson since 2019.
This is the first time that there is a question mark behind this distribution of money.
“Obviously I’m disappointed that this happened, but I think given this amount of money and the number of people involved over such a long period of time, it’s likely that something like this could happen,” said Steve Christy, district manager of the Fourth District.
There are no proven facts, but it is assumed that the laundry company overcharged Amado.
The contract was approved by Casa Alitasthe CCS branch, which handles laundry services and many other tasks.
But until more facts are known, she is not ready to point the finger at others, Grijalva said.
“We were dealing with an influx of 500 to 1,500 people on any given day,” Grijalva said. “So you pay a premium to be able to do that.”
She said there were hundreds of contracts to provide food, shelter, transport and laundry to people who were on the move for weeks at a time, in many cases wearing the same clothes. Cleaning was likely a difficult problem and it was not unusual to pay extra for these services.
“I really believe it could be an accident,” Grijalva said. “I met both people and I don’t believe there is anything malicious involved.”
Catholic Community Services self-reported the problem immediately after it was discovered and has not encountered any further problems since.
Pima County has reviewed its contracts and found no problems. The Pima County Attorney’s Office is reviewing the contracts but has not yet issued a statement.
The Federal Government has been made aware of the problem.
Even though it is not a county contract, Christy believes the county should be held accountable.
“Ultimately, it is still Pima County’s responsibility to make sure that these funds are spent and distributed properly and in an honest manner,” he said. “That’s our job. The responsibility is ours.”
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