PHOENIX — The International Rescue Committee has been granted permission to use a closed Phoenix elementary school as a temporary boarding house for immigrants seeking asylum.
The Ann Ott School near 16th Street and Buckeye Road closed in 2007.
But the City of Phoenix granted a permit to the organization Tuesday, allowing the school to house as many as 300 people for up to 48 hours at a time.
The decision can be appealed for the next 15 days, but IRC attorney Paul Gilbert has already applied for an at-risk permit, which would allow IRC to begin work immediately on making the school habitable.
Gilbert said the most important thing to understand is that anyone staying at the facility will be here legally, having filed paperwork with the U.S. government and been cleared by Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection.
"What we've been doing is that churches have been hosting them at the churches or at members' houses," Gilbert said Wednesday. "Without this type of facility, they're really lost."
The International Rescue Committee echoed those thoughts in a written statement provided to 12 News Wednesday.
"The asylum-seeking families that this welcome center will serve are just that: families like yours and mine," IRC Arizona Executive Director Aaron Rippenkroeger said in the statement.
"The families consist of at least one parent and one child who are following the legal process for seeking asylum, and have family members or friends who have sponsored them."
The use permit will be reviewed after one year. The cost to make the school into an asylum boarding house will be paid by IRC and a coalition of local church groups.
"There isn't one nickel of taxpayer money going to this. It is all through donations," Gilbert said.
Gilbert is not sure how long the facility will be needed, but said IRC will pay the school district rent during the time it uses the facility. He added that IRC has the right to renew the lease as long as there is a need.
He hopes that the federal government will eventually get a handle on the asylum backlog and make places like this unnecessary. In the meantime, he's not only representing IRC, he's part of the church coalition helping the migrants.
"I think it's particularly appropriate at this time of year as we celebrate the Fourth of July and the founding of our nation that we can reach out and treat these people who are immigrants with dignity," Gilbert said. "So that they know the real spirit of America, and that we are a generous and giving nation."