Phoenix (3TV/CBS 5) – Politicians, tribal leaders, and heads of local humanitarian aid groups in Yuma County, Arizona, have been politicized from across the United States amid rising immigrant arrivals that could overwhelm local resources. He called on a diverse delegation of senators to pass immigration reform. Arizona Senator Kristen Cinema, independent and Republican Texas Senator John Cornyn, led an eight-person delegation to Yuma the day after conducting a similar visit to El Paso, Texas.
Cinema and Senator Mark Kelly led a group of lawmakers during a visit to the border town of Yuma. During Tuesday’s visit, the senator met with Border Patrol agents, the National Guard and the Yuma County Sheriff. They also toured the border security processing center and met with organizations that assist asylum seekers.
The two-state tour comes amid calls for Washington to find new ways to deal with the growing number of people arriving at the southern border of the United States from around the world. This is for President Joe Biden to travel to El Paso on Sunday to attend the North American summit in Mexico City. Republican Yuma Mayor Doug Nichols has repeatedly called on Washington leaders to come up with lasting policy changes. “The money isn’t going to run out,” Nichols said, adding that the additional funding was “just a temporary gap.”
Biden recently announced major immigration policy changes that will create new pathways to the United States for some immigrants. In many cases, however, immigrants are required to remain in their home countries while their cases are being considered. ‘ said Cinema.
Hundreds of people from various countries such as Russia, Georgia, India and Nicaragua arrive daily at the US-Mexico border in Yuma County seeking asylum. Just a few years ago, Yuma was a sleepy place on the border with about 8,000 arriving each year.
“This is a really big challenge. This is a global problem that we are going through.
“I really hope they see the reality, ask the questions that need to be asked, and then take it home and take action,” Nichols said. , after meeting with stakeholders and leaders in the Yuma community, hoped they would gain new perspectives. This is important to us because different groups have come over the years, not the parliamentary group, and allowing them to see it first hand and talk to different elements along the way So you can talk to all the people involved in government agencies, not just cities and borders.
In addition to Senators Cinema and Senator Kerry, there will be six other senators, four Republicans and two Democrats. “Working together, I am confident we can come up with a solution to this problem that strengthens our borders, but at the same time provides what we need to support our economy,” Kelly said. The senator said Monday while speaking along the El Paso border.
A group of senators spent Monday at the Texas-Mexico border, where they toured the border and held a roundtable with El Paso leaders. We are working together in a coalition, we ask the administration to have better control over the laws that we have enacted, but we want to change these laws and close loopholes so that we can create a system that actually works. We know it’s our job as members of Congress to shut down for everyone,” said Senator Cinema.
The rest of the group included Republican Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina, James Lankford of Oklahoma, and Jerry Moran of Kansas. Delaware Rep. Chris Coons and Connecticut Rep. Chris Murphy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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