Governor Doug Ducey traveled to Yuma Tuesday for a briefing with local officials on the Biden Border Crisis unfolding on the Arizona-Mexico line. The Governor announced actions to address the situation, surging and repositioning of Arizona’s public safety resources to keep Arizonans and migrants safe.
National and local media covered the announcement, including Fox News, National Review, The Center Square, The Seattle Times, ABC15, KTAR and Arizona Daily Star.
The Yuma Sun featured the announcement on its front page, providing a first-hand look at groups of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Read it below:
|
|
Border Crisis ‘At A Breaking Point,' Officials Say As Ducey Visits Yuma
|
|
Yuma Sun
December 8, 2021
|
|
Gov. Doug Ducey visited Yuma on Tuesday to get a first-hand look at the recent illegal immigration surge. As the governor held a press conference along the border wall, small groups of migrants continued to arrive nearby.
As part of his visit, Ducey took a tour of the border and met with the Yuma Sector Border Patrol, the Arizona National Guard, the state’s Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement.
He then held a press conference along the U.S./Mexico border in the vicinity of the Morelos Dam, an area where large numbers of migrants routinely cross the border illegally each day.
With a group of about 30 migrants milling about just a few feet away on the U.S. side of the border fence and several small groups arriving while he spoke, Ducey said that illegal immigration is a federal issue, not a state one.
“The security of our border is a federal issue, yet the Biden administration has been completely absent, and they have left governors to clean up their mess,” Ducey said.
The governor specifically cited the Biden administration’s attempt to end the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy, which the president ended when he took office, but has since been court-ordered to reinstate.
While the program is only currently being used in El Paso, Ducey said it has resulted in more migrants being pushed to Arizona’s border and other areas of Texas.
“Since they have announced the re-enacting of the Remain in Mexico program, people are racing in Arizona in droves to arrive before it is implemented here,” Ducey said. “The Biden administration has sent a clear message to migrants that our border is wide open.”
Ducey added that the policy needed to be implemented uniformly and constantly, with urgency and not piecemeal.
Ducey was joined at the border by Adjutant General Kerry Muehlenbeck, state DHS Director Tim Roemer, Col. Heston Silbert of DPS and Yuma County Sheriff Leon Wilmot, as well as Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls, Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines, Sen. Sine Kerr, Rep. Joanne Osborne and Rep. Tim Dunn.
Wilmot noted there have been more than 5,000 illegal crossings into the Yuma Sector since Thursday, which made it necessary to ask for more state and federal assistance.
“The situation is at a breaking point,” Wilmot said. “It is getting to the point where our Border Patrol does not have the manpower to be able to address border security.”
Wilmot said the migrant crisis is also taking away valuable resources meant for Yuma County residents.
For example, 911 dispatchers spent two hours Sunday night addressing calls from migrants wanting to be picked up. Some migrants have called Uber drivers and taxi cabs for a ride to the Yuma Border Patrol station.
The concern for local law enforcement, according to Wilmot, is not immigration. It is the ancillary crime that goes with it.
He explained the Border Patrol prevented a lot of that crime while conducting border security. However, when agents are busy addressing humanitarian issues associated with migrants, other local law enforcement agencies have to step in and fill the gap.
Criminal cartels are also taking advantage of the situation and using the migrants as a distraction to smuggle drugs into the country through the eastern desert.
“We know this. We have cameras out there. We spot them,” Wilmot said. “These are the getaways, the criminals who don’t want to get caught”
With the surge in illegal crossing getting worse each day, Ducey said he has called on Muehlenbeck, Silbert, and Roemer to come up with a clear and effective plan to address the crisis here in Yuma.
As such the Department of Emergency and Military Affairs is deploying additional assets to the Arizona border, including additional personnel, vehicles and a Blackhawk helicopter.
Muehlenbeck and Silbert will be deploying tactical resources and additional National Guard troops across the state to areas of the border that the Border Patrol has identified as being where the most threatening intrusions are happening.
The governor said he is also calling on Arizona’s federal delegation to insist that immediate action on the border be part of any bill or mega bill currently being considered in the House or Senate.
“There has never been a time when our federal delegation has had more leverage than it does right now,” Ducey said. “My request is for them to use it.”
Lines said while it is obvious that the Border Patrol is overwhelmed, the tragedy of the border crisis is the human cost.
Having spent the past few nights at the border, Lines said he has been able to talk to some of the families who have come across and listened to their stories.
“They have sold everything to come here looking for a land of opportunity,’ Lines said. “You can’t blame them for what they are doing. But they are risking everything.”
With 27,000 illegal crossings in October and 1,300 migrants in custody at the Yuma Sector, Lines said people need to ask their elected officials to be accountable to the suffering that is happening on the border.
“On Monday we had a 3-year-old boy show up with his mother’s telephone number pinned to his chest. Found him in the middle of the desert,” Lines said. “He couldn’t even communicate with anybody. That is the face of human trafficking.”
He added that human trafficking and illegal immigration are going to continue, if not increase, until the country implements policies that will lead to a permanent solution.
Yuma Mayor Douglas Nichols said illegal border crossings have posed serious problems to the communities in Yuma County since 2019, and if the issue isn’t addressed it will only get worse.
In closing, Ducey said the surge in Yuma has been happening for months and the Biden administration has done nothing about it. He added that neither President Biden, nor Vice President Kamala Harris, who is the administration’s border czar, have even been to the Arizona border.
“Mr. President, do something. Say anything to show you care about the safety of Americans and these migrants,” Gov. Ducey said. “We welcome the President to the border when he feels he has the time.”
|
|
|
Thank you,
Governor's Office
|
|
|
|
|
