$5 MILLION — Latter-day Saint Charities is providing $5 million in grants to be distributed across all nine U.S. refugee resettlement agencies, according to a press release from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The funds are expected to help more than 9,000 refugees and immigrants. Tad Walch of the Deseret News notes that the church has donated more than $19 million to resettlement agencies since 2016 — and that agencies need to ramp up after record-low refugee admissions in recent years under the Trump administration. "Having a reserve to support those clients who have lingering obstacles to gaining employment with their food needs or rent needs or medical expenses will be life-altering for some clients," said Alicia Wrenn, senior director of resettlement and integration with HIAS, one of the resettlement agencies receiving funds.    

THE COST — For the Associated Press, Sonia Pérez D. tells the story of Alvina Jerónimo Pérez, who put her home up as collateral to fund her journey from Guatemala to the U.S. Alvina’s family had recently renovated the house, but scarce work opportunities left them struggling to keep up the payments on top of other bills. To find work and opportunity, she paid a smuggler $7,700 to help her and her daughter reach the U.S., with the deed to her home returned once the fee was paid — but the plan backfired and they were deported. "I thought of everything the trip had cost me," Jerónimo said. "I asked myself ‘What am I going to do?’ I’ve lost everything." But she says "pure necessity" would lead her to risk more debt and try again. 

THE VALLEY— McAllen, Texas, is located such that it is "the shortest route for Central American migrants making their way to the U.S.," Rebecca Morin reports for USA Today. For that reason, McAllen and other towns in the Rio Grande Valley are playing an outsized role in helping care for migrants arriving at the border once they are out of U.S. custody, with the help of local organizations such as Catholic Charities. Help from local organizations and governments has come in the form of "food, clothing, COVID-19 tests and an opportunity to reach their families," Morin notes. "Though the White House acknowledges border communities are important to handling an influx of arrivals at the border, community leaders and officials want more communication from Washington as localities shoulder the day-to-day processing of migrants."