Border crossings have proliferated since 2020.
That year, there were 90,754 reported encounters by Arizona Border Patrol agents.
By 2021, that number has increased to 406,011. In 2022 it rose again to 595,020.
These numbers may explain why congressional delegations have visited the Arizona border three times so far this year.
It began with a mid-January visit to Yuma by a bipartisan Senate delegation led by Arizona’s Kirsten Cinema and Mark Kelly.
Then a delegation made up of Republican congressmen came in February, one to Cochise County and another to Yuma again.
The second event in Yuma was attended by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee and focused on topics they heard mentioned by previously elected officials, such as illegal drug smuggling.
Phoenix District Rep. Andy Biggs said at the event, “I would first try to undermine the narrative posed by my colleagues across the aisle. They say 90% of fentanyl is seized at the border. prize. [is seized] Right of the port entrance. As if fentanyl and other drugs in large quantities never entered the dock.”
However, we also spoke to affected community members who provide critical services, such as Dr. Robert Trenschell, President and CEO of Yuma Regional Medical Center.
“We provided $26 million in uncompensated care to cross-border migrants,” he said. “We are required by law to meet everyone who comes to our door and we have to do it. There are 300,000 people lined up at the border and they have come in over the past year. And we have to see, whoever needs a visit to the hospital, we do it, we do it with pride, and we give everyone the same level of care. I have received it.”
When Republicans held an event in Yuma, Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva, whose constituency stretches from west of Tucson to south of Yuma, held his own event.
“I’ve never [the Republican delegation] Talk to the local people,” Grijalva told NPR affiliate KAWC during the visit. They also did not speak to the mayor or elected officials of the border communities. Nor did I go to see how nonprofits, religious groups, and the Salvation Army are responding to the humanitarian crisis we face.
The Yuma event was covered by KAWC’s Lisa Sturgis, who said there was a noticeable bias against the Republican event.
“They spoke [Yuma County] Sheriff Leon Wilmot, Vice President Jonathan Lines of the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, and Dr. Robert Trenchell of the Yuma Regional Medical Center. All three of them have appeared on Fox News in recent months, making headlines about the region facing imminent collapse. ”
Sturgis said many in the area, including the nearby mayor of San Luis, refer to the event as a dog and pony show. rice field.
“Agricultural interest was not heard during the war. [House] Judiciary Committee hearings,” she said. While there is an immigration problem, we are having a very hard time keeping up with the seasonal influx of farm workers, which is so important to the region. ”
While many in Congress are concerned about the large influx of immigrants and refugees into the country, many others are concerned about the immigrants and refugees themselves.
This includes members of the Kino Border Initiative, a Catholic Department of Immigration based in Nogales, Arizona, but serving Ambos Nogales.
Sister Traby Horan, Associate Director of Education and Advocacy at KBI, said, “The big change for us is the policy uncertainty and how it impacts those who arrive here and those who are displaced. “For example, in the fall the Biden administration began to extend the Title 42 expulsion to Venezuelans. , there are more people who have been able to start the process and go…be with the families who have been waiting for them.”
She said policy changes and long wait times have led to more people deciding to enter the country illegally.
“Many of these families, waiting for them to be in imminent danger or unable to withstand these circumstances, are choosing to pay smugglers to enter the United States. ”
Those who take that step tell the story of a family, not just those who no longer have the papers to legally enter the country.
“They were in this town and didn’t really feel safe at the border. They couldn’t handle it anymore,” Horan said. Get officials to start the asylum process so someone can hear their case. ”
