How Arizona is responding to a record surge of migrant crossings at the border

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• John Yang:

  This afternoon, White House officials and Senate Republicans resumed talks aimed at a deal on new border security measures. Without an agreement, Republicans say they will not vote for more money for Ukraine. A record number of migrants on the southern border could push President Biden to consider restrictions that in the past he's denounced.

  We'll look at the situation on the border, Danyelle Khmara who covers the border for Arizona Public Media. Danyelle, we'll hear these numbers. We hear them say, you know, record number record surge of migrants at the border, you're there you go to the border, what does a record surge look like there.

• Danyelle Khmara, Arizona Public Media:

  So basically, the numbers of people that are coming across the border right now in this region have almost doubled in the last few months. This area is now the area that's getting the highest number of migrants crossing the border. And what it looks like is it looks like hundreds of people a day up to 1,000, sometimes over 1,000 people a day, crossing the border, and then basically turning themselves over to Border Patrol waiting to be processed by border patrol.

  And border patrol prioritizes processing families and people with young children of which there are many. And then they will process these single adults, mostly single men after that. So some of these migrants are waiting out in the desert for days waiting to be processed.

• John Yang:

  Now I've read that they've closed one port of entry along the Arizona-Mexico border cutting off legal migration. How does that help?

• Danyelle Khmara:

  Yeah, so basically, there's this port of entry in this town called Lukeville that got shut down a couple of weeks ago, officials said that they were shutting that down so they could move the dozen or so customs officers to help Border Patrol process some of these migrants.

  What that means is that the direct route that was provided by that port of entry to Puerto Penasco, to beaches that Arizonans lovingly call Arizona's beach in Mexico, that route is now shut off, which has had devastating effects for the economy in that area, as well.

  It is having an impact on the small communities that live around that port of entry, who used to have a direct route to have to cross the border to visit family to go shopping to go to doctor's appointments. And now they no longer have access to that direct route. And they would have to go hours out of their way to be able to do that crossing.

• John Yang:

  In addition to that having to go farther to cross the border. How is this affecting life for residents on the American side?

• Danyelle Khmara:

  Yeah, so you know, as far as the large numbers of migrants that are crossing, it is not affecting the majority of residents that live on the border and around the border. And the reason why is because a number of nongovernmental organizations have really rallied together to put up services for these migrants temporary services.

  There are a number of them along the border, Border Patrol, will drop off migrants with these services. And then there are more robust services that sent buses to bring the migrants to Tucson and to Phoenix where they can give them overnight services. They can give them clothes, food and assistance to make their travel arrangements to go to their final destination, which is typically with friends and family members in other parts of the country.

  So your average person living in these border communities is not seeing these large groups of migrants on a regular basis or for most people, probably not much at all.

• John Yang:

  Now I know the governor has sent the National Guard to the border, what are the National Guardsmen going to do?

• Danyelle Khmara:

  Yeah, so she just announced this on Friday that she would be sending the National Guard to the border. We have in this region right now. I believe it's 243 National Guard. So as far as what they're going to do, she said that they are going to be helping with border security measures that could include drug interdiction that could include possibly helping with the number of migrants that are crossing into the country.

  But since she just announced it on Friday, it is yet to be seen what that is going to look like on the ground.

• John Yang:

  And she's also asking for help from the federal government. She wrote a letter to President Biden, what does she want, what is she looking for?

• Danyelle Khmara:

  Yeah, well, basically, she asked President Biden to open the Port of Entry immediately, which was one of the reasons why local officials want that port opened is because Arizona's economy, especially their tourist economy, does get a lot of money from Mexican tourists coming into the region.

  And also our Governor and other elected officials have been asking for more robust money and more robust services to be helping with getting these migrants services once they come into the country and getting them to their next destination.

• John Yang:

  Is this situation sustainable? Or does something really have to change?

• Danyelle Khmara:

  One of the many things that's not sustainable is that a lot of the non-governmental organizations that are helping migrants in cities like Tucson and Phoenix are constantly in a state of concern that they are not going to have enough resources to continue providing these services.

  And the reason why is because the federal government has been doling out grants to help cover these services, in short, short funding amounts. So these nongovernmental organizations can only plan so far ahead. And with the large influx of migrants, the fact that more and more people keep coming and that number keeps growing, the money is not lasting as long as these organizations need it to last.

  They have been saying for quite some time now that they need a funding source that is more sustainable and more long term.

• John Yang:

  Danyelle Khmara of Arizona Public Media Thank you very much.

  : Thank you so much.

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