The scenario has been described by some politicians as an invasion, however, for elected officials and nonprofits, the arrival of migrants at the Arizona-Mexico border is a new phenomenon.
“What’s happening in our state right now with the number of immigrants coming to our border is not a coincidence,” Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. , told The Arizona Republic.
“This has happened all my life, and it’s the fault of the federal government for refusing to solve this challenge for the last 40 years and beyond,” he said.
Last month, Sinema met with nonprofits across Arizona that travel 24 hours a day into space and send released migrants along the border. They included representatives from teams such as the Regional Center for Border Health in Yuma, Casa Alitas in Tucson and International Rescue. Committee in Phoenix.
The emergency reaction after the U. S. Border PatrolThe U. S. government that began releasing them on the streets of border cities four years ago has become a concerted formula among nonprofits and greater coordination with federal agencies to get immigrants out of Arizona.
Now, stakeholders involved in this procedure are looking for longer-term responses to respond to flows, which show no symptoms of prevention in the short term.
Amanda Aguirre, president and CEO of the Regional Center for Border Health, said she wants to strike a balance between offering assistance to migrants and not overburdening community organizations that have so far borne the brunt of the response.
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“Maybe shelters can be durable, but Array. . . there will have to be greater policies for other people to cross the border,” he said.
After a 2020 as a reference year due to COVID-19, the encounters of migrants at the border between the United States and Mexico have returned and in several months have exceeded the maximum degrees noticed before the pandemic of a sharp fall.
But what’s different about the continued influx of immigrants is the makeup of other people that border officials encounter more often.
Since 2014, families and youth have arrived and surpassed single men, according to statistics from U. S. Customs and Border Protection. USA
Border services designed for adults struggled to accommodate them, resulting in scenes that were located across the border in crowded detention rooms filled with parents and children. In Turkey, a federal ruling even found that situations in southern Arizona services violated the Constitution.
After the pandemic began, the number of single adults increased again, surpassing the number of families and children. But overall, there are more migrants arriving from countries other than Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.
They cannot be deported under Title 42, a pandemic fitness rule in place since March 2020. As a result, more of them were detained for immigrants or released into communities across the country where they were monitored as detention opportunities.
After hitting a low of 13,258 in February 2021, shortly after President Joe Biden took office, the number of other people detained at immigration centers rose to 22,886 in July, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
In addition, the number of migrants detained was over 3 and part-time during the same period.
In Arizona, the number of migrants released online and followed by this program increased from 1156 in February 2021 to 24,352, according to TRAC.
With the arrival of more families and migrants from other countries, federal and nonprofit agencies have worked together to better manage migrant flows.
There were some initial setbacks. For example, when the releases began in Yuma, nonprofits fought to get immigrants out of Yuma and into major cities with more transportation options.
Then, a year ago, the Regional Center for Border Health began accepting and evaluating migrants released through the Border Patrol. The center has six buses a day with a shipping capacity of between 300 and 350 migrants. up to date, according to Aguirre, president and CEO of the media.
There were transportation delays in Phoenix last year. ICE began dropping off immigrants at bus stations. Officials at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport said many other people who were dropped off at the airport were unprepared and risked being stranded.
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Since then, nonprofits, ICE and the airport have made progress in coordinating for migrants to be dropped off at shelters or have all their flight details before arriving at the airport.
“We are now seeing that most asylum seekers who are dropped off at the airport through (nonprofits) are in a position to receive less assistance from our staff,” said Julie Rodriguez, Sky Harbor’s deputy director of aviation.
But demanding situations remain.
For example, nonprofits told Sinema they had to absorb non-refundable prices, such as safe transportation prices or hours spent running with migrants.
Another expense they had to absorb, Aguirre said, is the collection of prescription drugs that the outlet supplies to migrants who need medical attention at their clinic.
“We have pregnant women. We have other people with chronic illnesses who want prescriptions, not just over-the-counter medications,” he said. “But when those cases come, if they want a prescription, we wish we could be reimbursed for that. “
The procedure has advanced since the Federal Emergency Management Agency became concerned but, according to Aguirre, there are still delays. He said Yuma County was in the process of applying to become a tax agency, so the outlet can claim a refund through them, having to go through Maricopa County, as they do lately.
Another major challenge has been housing. The number of migrants released into non-profit associations is becoming day by day. On days when the numbers are high, they struggle to lie down to space out migrants.
The teams turned to renting hotel rooms, but told Sinema it was not a sustainable long-term solution. Sinema said those conversations were imperative to help find solutions.
“As a social worker, that’s how I think about short-term emergency facilities rather than long-term holistic facilities. And this is nothing unusual in government. So I’m grateful for my social work, my education and my own experience,” he says.
Sinema and Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Arizona, secured $110 million in additional investments before this year for nonprofits working with immigrants along the border. The cash is distributed through FEMA’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program.
But there is criticism, especially from Republicans, that the federal government is doing enough to respond to the release of immigrants at the border.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, along with other elected Republicans across the country, have used the backlog of border arrivals to attack Biden’s policies.
“The federal government remains inactive as the humanitarian and public protection crisis at our southern border increases. States want to pick up the pieces of the damaged border,” Ducey said in a recent Twitter post.
In May, the state began transporting migrants from Yuma to Washington, D. C. , following in the footsteps of Texas, which had begun doing the same weeks earlier. To date, buses paid for by Arizona have transported more than 1100 migrants to the nation’s capital.
The action has drawn criticism, adding Washington, D. C. , Mayor Muriel Bowser, who told CBS News’ Face the Nation that “I’m involved in them getting stuck on domestic bus rides while their final destinations are all over the United States of America. “. “
Washington’s homeless shelters D. C. se filled with asylum seekers from Texas and Arizona. Mayor Bowser says, “I worry that they will get caught up in domestic bus rides when their final destinations are across the United States of América. pic. twitter. com/7OOH6F2Dpl
He called on Biden’s management to propose a well-coordinated federal reaction to publications spanning states.
C. J. Karamargin, a spokesman for Ducey, told The Republic that they were encouraging immigrants to board those buses to Washington. He said the immigrants signed up for a voluntary foundation as many of them were heading to East Coast towns.
“This is a persistent challenge that neither Arizona nor Washington would have to face if the federal government did its job,” Karamargin said. it’s simple, and it’s simple because the border is not secure. “
In June, Ducey signed a border security bill that includes, among other things, $10 million that has been allocated and can be used to pay for the transportation of migrants from Yuma to Washington.
Aguirre said the Regional Center for Border Health is working nonstop to send migrants out of the Yuma region. He welcomed any of the federal and state governments.
“We don’t prevent holidays. We don’t prevent Saturdays. We don’t prevent Sundays,” he said. But it helped us bring in some of the families who don’t have enough cash to get to the East Coast. And they volunteer to take a bus, only they provide breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks. “
Do you have any news recommendations or concepts for articles on immigration in the South-West?Contact the journalist on rafael. carranza@arizonarepublic. com, or on Twitter at @RafaelCarranza.