Yuma, Arizona In Emergency From Mass Migrant Release

In breaking news, Doug Nicholls, the Republican mayor of Yuma, Arizona, has declared a state of emergency after the U.S. Border Patrol began releasing hundreds of migrant families from their custody into the general population of the urban area which has about 200,000 residents.

Arizona Border Patrol officials explained that their decision was based on practicality: the government processing centers are swamped and unable to “cope with the large numbers of arriving families and minors.”

While simply emptying detention areas into the streets of Yuma might have seemed like a good idea at the federal level where such decisions are made, the people of Yuma are reeling from the impact of the sudden increase in vagrants around town.

Yuma mayor Nicholls termed the migrants an “imminent threat” and said the current situation is “above our capacity as a community to sustain.”

The <> City of Yuma tweeted this official announcement on April 16, 2019, at 3:42pm local time:

“Mayor: Migrants being released into the community faster than they are departing, and shelters and the staff to run them are at max capacity. A state of emergency is declared.”

The Yuma mayor explained that the sheer numbers of migrants have overwhelmed the public transit system, stranding them where they are:

“The transportation network is just insufficient to keep up with demand and the backlog of people staying at the shelter has created this capacity issue.”

These migrants are being let go with a notice to appear in court. The relative hosting the migrant is responsible for purchasing transportation to their location. However, with its limited number of bus routes and travel options, many migrants have been forced to remain sheltered in Yuma rather than leave.

Yuma is the first city to declare an official emergency in the wake of the large numbers of indigents being loosed on their streets. Nicholls and his counterparts in other border towns are hoping that federal emergency funds will “avert the threat of hundreds of people roaming streets looking to satisfy their basic human needs.”

Nicholls, speaking for his constituents, sees no gain from the federal Border Patrol’s Catch and Release program, saying the migrants “threaten to cause injury, damage and suffering to persons and property located in the City of Yuma, Yuma County, Arizona as well as causing a humanitarian crisis.”

The week before, officials in the Rio Grande Valley, located in southern Texas, took the lead by releasing migrant families from their custody.

The Border Patrol’s Yuma sector issued a written statement about the Fed’s thinking behind adding a large percentage of homeless, jobless, and hungry third-world foreigners to an otherwise typical American town:

“U.S. Border Patrol processing centers are not designed to house the current numbers of families and small children that we are encountering. Due to capacity issues at our stations and the ongoing humanitarian crisis nationwide, Border Patrol has begun identifying detainees for potential release in Yuma with a notice to appear for their immigration hearings.”

Carl Landrum, Deputy Chief of the Yuma sector, confirmed that the decision to offload a federal problem onto municipalities was based on the government’s inability to handle the dramatic surge in migrant families and minors of recent months which have maxed out both their resources as well as places to physically put people.

The number of migrants who arrived at Yuma in the past year seeking entry has gone up more than three-fold:

“According to the latest government statistics, in the first five months of the fiscal year, agents in Yuma have apprehended 17,578 migrants traveling as a family. By contrast, in that same time period last year, they encountered 5,319 migrants. That’s a 330 percent increase and does not include rising numbers of unaccompanied minors and other single-adult migrants.”

Princeton Policy Advisors researcher Steven Kopits estimated that by 2019 there will be as many as half a million illegal aliens who successfully cross the southern border onto U.S. soil undetected and undeterred by Border Patrol agents.

Breitbart News reported that, in 2019, “the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Catch and Release policy — whereby border crossers and illegal aliens are readily released from federal custody into the interior of the U.S. — is on track to release roughly 434,000 border crossers and illegal aliens into the country by the end of the year.”

Patrick Ptak issued a written statement on behalf of Arizona Governor Doug Ducey who both welcomed Mayor Nicholls’ state-of-emergency declaration and assigned blame for the need for it:

“We will review any declaration once we receive it. Ultimately, this humanitarian crisis is the result of Congress’ failure to act. It will only be solved by Congress actually doing something, and the governor has vocally urged Congress to quit playing politics and take action. In the wake of their inaction, our office is working with local governments, non-profits and our federal partners to maximize available resources and ensure proper coordination between ICE officials and groups providing temporary services to migrants.”

The statement listed all the resources being taxed to the limit by the Border Patrol’s mass migrant release:

“…the local emergency exceeds control of the services, personnel, equipment and facilities of the City of Yuma and requires the combined efforts, cooperation, and resources of the Yuma community including local and non-profit agencies such as the Red Cross, Catholic Community Services, The Salvation Army, Yuma Community Food Bank, churches, the County of Yuma, the State of Arizona, and the United States of America.”

Meanwhile, a mere month after President Trump declared a national emergency because of the waves of migrants crossing legally and illegally at the U.S.-Mexico border, the GOP Commander-in-Chief continues to threaten to close the U.S. border with Mexico.