In Nogales, migrant street releases are a daily occurrence.
The drop-offs usually come in the morning, but the locations vary.
“Whenever we see these surges in migration, sometimes it can strain the system and lead to incidents where individuals may be released outside those local agreements,” said Blas Nunez-Neto, assistant secretary for Border and Immigration Policy for the Department of Homeland Security.
Last week several thousand migrants, including 1,500 on Sunday, entered Arizona in the Tucson sector. To help the border patrol manage the migrant surge, the Department of Homeland Security re-assigned customs agents from Arizona’s ports of entry. The result is a major reduction in the amount of commercial, agricultural, tourism and retail traffic coming north from Mexico in Arizona.
The more difficult you make it for trade related to electronics, agriculture to come across, our communities do feel the economic impact so that’s worrisome,” said Marco Lopez president and CEO of Intermestic Partners.
Lopez’s company helps facilitate trade between Arizona and Mexico. Prior to starting his business, Lopez was the Chief of Staff of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol during the Obama Administration. He was also Mayor of Nogales. “What we’re seeing now is a lot of Russians, Chinese, lots of immigrants from African countries. They don’t speak English and they don’t speak Spanish,” Lopez said.
Over the past week, the mayors of Douglas and San Luis, the Border Counties Coalition and the Greater Nogales Santa Cruz County Port Authority wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas asking for a new plan that fully staffs the port of entries and limits the number of migrant street releases.
Assistant Secretary Nunez-Neto was not about to make any promises. “The factors that are driving this unprecedented movement of people throughout our hemisphere and really across the world are still in place and we will continue to grapple with and confront as long as our immigration laws continue to be as outdated as they are,” Nunez-Nino said absent of Congressional action we will continue to see these surges at the border.
Nunez-Nito said since the end of Title 42 in May, which was a COVID-19 public health restriction that limited migrants entering the country, 250,000 migrants have been removed from the U.S. and returned to their country of origin.
The Department of Homeland Security also announced an additional 800 active duty forces will be sent to the southwest border to assist Customs and Border Patrol.
No word if any are coming to Arizona.
