The nonprofit that provides services to illegal immigrants inside the United States, and will receive $7.5 million according to an announcement made by Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ-03), paid its top executive nearly $1 million in 2023, and spent an additional almost $4 million on one passenger transportation company.
A federal tax document filed in 2023 reveals the Regional Center for Border Health, Inc., which Gallego reported received $7.5 million of the border community support funding he helped secure, paid a total of more than $1 million in salaries to just three top employees.
Regional Center for Border Health president Amanda Aguirre (pictured here), a former Arizona state legislator, received $815,785, and earned the most of anyone considered a board member or key employee at the nonprofit.
Finance director Ilian Marquez received an additional $164,441, and IT director Philip Gladney received $101,380. The three top personnel received $1,081,606 in total.
Aguirre served in the Arizona State Legislature from 2003 until 2011, first as a State Representative then in the Arizona Senate. She was appointed to a national advisory role by President Joe Biden in August, with the announcement coming just one day after Gallego announced the organization she leads would receive $7.5 million in federal funding.
Though Regional Center for Border Health in March was reportedly engaged in transition services, with the goal of helping illegal immigrants who claimed asylum adjust to life in the United States during the years-long wait for their case to go before a judge, the top independent contractor it worked with appears to be a bus company.
Regional Center for Border Health spent $3,751,050 with SM Tours LLC in 2023, making it the company’s single largest independent contracting expense.
It is unclear what services the nonprofit purchased from SM Tours LLC, but ABC News 15 reported in March the group regularly received “busloads” of illegal immigrants.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) reveals SM Tours LLC is based in San Luis, Arizona, boasts 14 vehicles and 11 drivers, and logged 895,879 miles with the federal agency in 2022.
Publicly available documents from the Federal Transit Administration reveal SM Tours LLC appears to have a similar level of service vehicles to the City of San Luis, which boasted 16 service vehicles in 2022. The city reported its buses drove just over 7 million miles that year.
Documents filed with the Arizona Corporations Commission indicate the bus company was founded in 2016 at a residential address in San Luis, but the company also registered a post office box with the state.
Regional Center for Border Health did not offer a description for the services it purchased from SM Tours LLC, however, immigrant bus trips in Texas, funded at the direction of Governor Greg Abbott, reportedly cost the state government $1,844 per passenger.
In response to reporting about Regional Center for Border Health, Kari Lake, who is challenging Gallego in the Arizona’s race for the U.S. Senate, claimed in a post to the social media platform X that her opponent backs a nonprofit helping “resettle illegal immigrants into Arizona.”
She argued, “Gallego is not only facilitating the invasion of our country. He’s using it to enrich his benefactors [and] friends.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Rep. Ruben Gallego” by Gage Skidmore CC2.0; and “Regional Center for Border Health Fleet” by Regional Center for Border Health.
