After Joe Biden became president, farmers in Yuma County, Arizona, saw illegal immigrants soiling much of their crops.

“When the U.S. Border Patrol lost operational control of the border here in Yuma, many people were encroaching into the production area,” farmer Cory Mellon told the Daily Signal.

Among these illegal immigrants, Yuma farmers “saw nursing women nursing their babies in our fields” and “people urinating in our fields.” We lost a lot,” Mellon said.

Melon is a 5th generation farmer. He and his two older brothers own the family’s 5,000-acre farm, growing lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower, and spinach in the winter, and crops such as melons, wheat, alfalfa, and cotton in the summer. are cultivated.

Agriculture is the main industry in Yuma County, where about 90% of North America’s winter leaf vegetables are grown.

Because the melon plantations are about a mile from the U.S.-Mexico border, illegal crossings by immigrants did not damage the crops. But many other Yuma County farmers weren’t so lucky.

Yuma farmers estimate that they lost about $1 million worth of crops after illegal aliens encroached on their farmlands. “Because when they crossed the border into production areas, those farmlands had to be destroyed,” Mellon says.

He explained that food safety laws require farmers to destroy their crops if there is a risk of contamination due to unauthorized people encroaching on their farmland.

“We have a 500-page living document of what we can and can’t do, what we can and can’t allow. In the case of Coyote Trucks, we explained that farmers cannot harvest within 5 feet of each footprint.

The cost of lost crops “will only rest on the farmers who grew them,” Mellon said. “We don’t have insurance for that. We can’t make that money, so it’s a loss for the farmers, and obviously that crop never ended up on the market to feed our country.”

At Morelos Dam, a gap in the border wall serves as a central transit point for illegal immigrants, but only a dirt road separates the gap in the wall from farmland.

During the first few weeks of a surge in illegal immigration after Mr. Biden took office, as many as 2,000 people per day crossed the border into Yuma County, Mellon said. Border Patrol did not have the resources to deal with this surge or to quickly transport illegal immigrants off the farmland.

In fiscal 2020, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 8,804 illegal alien encounters in the Yuma sector. This includes 126 miles of borders with Mexico in both California and Arizona. In 2021, the number of those encounters he has increased to 114,488.

Of the illegal immigrants, Mellon said, “For the first few days, they couldn’t get the Border Patrol to pick them up because they didn’t have the equipment or the personnel to do it. So they started ordering Uber,” he said of illegal immigrants.

“They literally ordered Uber Eats and they ordered Uber to town,” he said, adding, “They all have cell phones.”

The border guards try, but “their hands are tied completely behind their backs,” Mellon said. “They can’t do their job. They’re not allowed to do it.”

The initial problem of mass “give-ups” or illegal aliens attempting to encounter Border Patrol agents to claim asylum has slowed dramatically, says Yuma farmer Kyle Kuchell. The problem of “fugitives” walking through the streets remains, he said.

“Give-up is not really a food safety issue now because the Biden administration provided them with toilets,” said Kuchel, who installed portable toilets near many gaps in Yuma’s border wall. said, referring to

Kuechel’s family owns a lemon farm about eight miles from the border. He said security measures at farms have been tightened due to the increase in illegal immigrants crossing the border.

“We are in a place where people have gone through open desert, but they are seeking refuge because the lemon farms are very dense and there are many places to hide,” Kuechel told The Daily Signal. “So I run into someone hiding under a tree.”

“It’s a situation where you’re very aware of your surroundings, your current situation,” Kuchel, 36, said of working on the farm.

“In the old days it wasn’t as bad as it is now. And while not all fields are traps, you’re definitely more aware.

Where once a farmer could leave his tractor in the field overnight and leave the key in the machine, now “everything is easily stolen and everything is easily sold.” I will be taken away.”

Illegal aliens trying to escape Border Patrol “are just trying to get into the interior of the United States by going out onto the interstate,” said the farmer. “So if there’s something they can make money to do it and get, it’s gone.”

When Border Patrol agents were asked what they needed to do their jobs, they said, “We don’t need new laws. We need to be able to enforce the laws that are on our books.”

After the Biden administration took over in January 2021, “the floodgates opened” at the border, he said.

“No one is more upset than legal migrant workers [over] Look at the give up and run away,” said the farmer.

His farm foreman legally immigrated from Mexico to the United States and it took him 23 years to obtain American citizenship.

“He did everything legally and did it the right way,” Kuechel said of the foreman. “And when he sees these give-ups at the border, it’s a slap in the face of everything he’s worked for.”

In fiscal 2022, which ends on September 30, Reported by Customs and Border Protection The southern border is home to a record 2.3 million overland encounters with immigrants. Since his October 1st, 2023, the agent has encountered more than 1 million migrants at the border.

With a large gap remaining in the Yuma County border wall, farmers need the federal government to “operate and manage the border to close the gap.” [and] shut down the ability to [illegal aliens] Go through our community unchecked. ”

Biden could just tweet “we are closed” and the flooding of illegal crossings “will stop,” Mellon said.

“The president’s tweet will shut down all of this if he intends it to,” said a Yuma farmer.

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