(cool music) - [Lorraine] Increasing apprehensions at the border understanding the impacts in Arizona.

- We've got a crisis on the border.

- It's just a symptom of the immigration system being broken.

- [Lorraine] A look at changing landscapes triggered by severe drought.

- We pray it's gonna rain and we hope and hope isn't a strategic plan.

- [Lorraine] As eligibility for the vaccine expands Pima County tries to keep up with demand.

- We can't give vaccine that we don't have.

- Hello and welcome to Arizona 360, I'm Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks for joining us.

The Southern border is in the national spotlight again, an uptick in apprehensions is fueling partisan accusations that president Biden's rollback of the Trump administration policies have created a crisis.

Data from customs and border protection shows that between October, 2020 and February, 2021 agents encountered 92% more unaccompanied children compared to the fiscal year before that was prior to the pandemic.

Encounters with single adults and family units also increased, 188% and 5% respectively.

There is a seasonal aspect.

Historically, apprehensions increased during those months and of the more than 380,000 people apprehended in that time, the vast majority were expelled from the US under the Federal Health Code, Title 42, a rule that applies to most, but not all.

This week customs and border protection released video showing children in crowded conditions at temporary processing centers in Donna, Texas and El Paso.

Footage in El Paso was captured the same day the border in Douglas served as the backdrop for Governor Doug Ducey's rebuke of Biden's policies.

- I've been governor under three presidents and this is by far the worst situation we've seen.

- His criticisms continued when I sat down with the governor while he was in Tucson earlier this week.

- President Biden announced that Vice President Harris will take the lead.

What is your relationship with her?

How hopeful are you that she'll offer some federal guidance?

- I can't imagine a worse pick.

If President Biden is serious about the border than Vice President Kamala Harris.

We've got a crisis on the border.

We have an emergency you'd think you'd want somebody with some background or experience on the border.

Someone that takes this issue seriously.

This decision actually trivializes that the administration does not see this as the crisis that it is.

They won't even call it a crisis.

- This week, CBP dropped off migrants in the town of Hilo Bend forcing the mayor to declare an emergency because the resources aren't in place.

As the governor, anything that you can do to discourage the agency from doing that, given that there aren't supports in place?

- Well, this is an emergency.

We are working with the administration.

We want to partner with them.

We've communicated with Secretary Mayorkas, who by his own numbers says, this is the highest level of apprehensions and crossings in the past 20 years.

And what we've asked is for additional resources and this is what could help Hilo Bend, but also clear communication.

I mean, the people South of the border are smart and they are watching.

And they have heard people raise their hand and saying "We're going to have free healthcare for people that cross the border illegally."

They've heard that everything that's been done in the previous administration, in terms of policies that was effective will be reversed.

And the cartels are taking advantage of this and preying on vulnerable families for their children to take this dangerous journey so that they can receive asylum.

- Do you think Title 42 should extend to children given that the resources are not in place to support them here in the state?

- I think that children are always different in any situation, but Title 42, the Remain in Mexico policy and the Safe Third Country policy are all things that need to be addressed.

I don't want to present as if this problem was solved in the previous administration.

But it had been largely improved.

- Much of what we're seeing now did occur during the Trump administration, as we know you are here for that, anything that you wish that you could do differently now given that we have experienced this before?

- Well, the Trump administration certainly was loud and clear on what was going to happen.

And President Trump went out of his way to get the attention of the President of Mexico.

People forget that there was a threat to shut the border, the entire border.

Now that never happened, but AMLO did step forward.

The President Trump began to work with President Lopez Obrador on this.

And the Southern border of Mexico was reinforced.

President Lopez Obrador has called Joe Biden, the "Migrant President", due to his communication that needs to be fixed.

- My sources are telling me that where construction stopped along the border, that's where they are seeing large groups traverse into the United States.

Also on a ton of other nation.

Are you prepared to direct any state resources to those areas just to assist the federal agents who are there?

- So we need flexibility with federal dollars so that we can address border security and that's public safety, boots on the ground, additional resources, national guard but yes, the Biden administration did stop construction and maintenance of the wall in Douglas, Arizona.

Why did we stop construction of something that had already been appropriated?

and with these cartels and knowing that there is no support on the border and that it's wide open.

- And if Kamala Harris reaches out to you as the vice president overseeing this, will you work with her?

- Oh, of course I will work with anyone of goodwill and direction whether it's Vice President Harris, President Biden, Secretary Mayorkas, but they ought to come to Arizona and see for themselves what's happening on the Southern border and clear up the communication that they have to the rest of the world.

- Governor Ducey, thank you.

- Thank you.

- My conversation with Governor Ducey will pick up later in our program our discussion also covered the state's vaccination efforts and the expanded eligibility for Arizonans 16 and up.

- This week, Pima County supervisors authorize the County transport asylum seekers release near the border to Casa Alitas in Tucson.

The County says groups are being released in places like Oahu, which doesn't have shelters.

This latest influx of migrants has put new strains on smaller communities.

For analysis, we turned to Arizona Republic Immigration Reporter, Rafael Carranza.

- So there's definitely been more migrant families and children that have been arriving over the past few months.

And really since April of last year, those numbers have steadily risen.

They're still below some of the numbers that we saw in 2019 when we have so many families and children arriving that border patrol was overwhelmed and they were forced to start releasing a lot of these families into the streets and the communities in Tucson and some of the other cities in Southern Arizona.

It's not quite at that level, but you have to keep in mind that one of the factors playing into all of this as COVID-19 and the fact that border patrol has reduced capacity, a lot of their holding facilities because of COVID-19 and maintaining some of those social distancing guidelines.

- Last week in Douglas, Governor Ducey expressed concern that this was taking place in large part because of the Biden administration.

But as we know, it happened under Obama and of course, under president Trump.

What does your work tell you about some of the trends you're seeing in overall migration patterns?

- So, this is something that certainly, it's playing out again, we've had similar surges and the number of migrants making their way to the border.

Over the past few years I spoke to Yuma Mayor, Douglas Nicholls last week.

And he mentioned that, he sees this as a cyclical problem, and it's just a symptom of the immigration system being broken.

And we had Biden and many of the top officials asking migrants to stay where they are and avoid coming to the border.

However, that doesn't really recognize the fact that there are thousands of individuals who are already waiting in Mexican border cities or have been in transit for months and even years, trying to make their way to United States.

And so, they have continued to arrive here and everyone that I've talked to essentially kind of expects even more migrants to continue arriving here in the coming months.

- What's the strain going to be like on communities?

I mean, you just returned from a trip to Yuma, Oahu and Hilo Bend, where that community made headlines for declaring an emergency, because they simply cannot sustain the number of people they're seeing arrive in their towns.

- Yes, this is an issue that many communities in Southern Arizona could potentially face.

Border patrol had been reaching out to them since about January, letting them know, warning them that, if the numbers of apprehensions continued to rise, that they would start seeing migrants released directly into their communities.

And it really had them worried because many of these small communities, for example like Oahu and Hilo Bend, are so small and so remote that they have very limited transportation options.

Many times they don't have other services, to to house migrants.

They don't have shelters in instances, they don't even have hospitals to be able to to provide any sort of emergency treatment or COVID testing.

And so that has become a big challenge, but, a lot of the nonprofits have really stepped up to the plate here both in Yuma and in locations like our Oahu and Hilo Bend, really providing the crux of the services there, including COVID-19 testing.

Ensuring that anybody who is released, test negative before they're able to move further into the interior of the United States.

And of course, providing some of those vital services like food, like shelter if necessary.

- Are migrants still able to seek asylum?

- The short answer to that is yes.

I mean, for the most part, it's still very limited.

There's still not a lot of processing happening at the border.

For example, a lot of the migrants that have been waiting in border cities like Nogales, or some of these in Colorado.

They are still not able to present themselves at ports of entry and make their claims.

However, we have seen more border patrol start to process more individuals who were apprehended in between the ports of entry.

So it really varies depending on the part of the border that you are at.

- Rafael Carranza, joining us from Phoenix the immigration reporter for the Arizona Republic.

Thank you for your insight.

- Thank you for having me.

- Migrants admitted into the US are required to make their case in court.

A process that can take years because of a growing backlog.

We discussed some of the reasons for this, as well as potential remedies with judge Amiena Khan.

Judge Kahn serves as the union president for the National Association of Immigration Judges.

- I'll just make a very quick disclaimer that I'm appearing as you noted in my capacity as president of the National Association of Immigration Judges.

And any opinions I express today are mine and not the opinions or positions of the Department of Justice or Executive Office for Immigration Review.

- Okay, let's begin with what is the backlog like right now for immigration cases that are trying to make their way through the court system - A tremendous backlog at this time.

It's well, over 1.3 million as reported.

The backlog, we believe was created by the misguided policies implemented by the prior administration.

Back in 2016, early 2017, the backlog was about 560,000 cases.

And as I noted, it's exponentially grown.

- The current migrant surge that we're seeing here at the Southern border, how will that contribute to the already existing backlog?

- Well, we're aware of the urgency of the situation on the Southern border, and we're confident that the current administration will proactively move to set in place the appropriate procedures.

However, that being said, when considering the influx of the unaccompanied juveniles and non-citizens at our Southern border, we have to recognize that judges have to have the power and authority to render decisions independently that the aimless docket shuffling of the prior administrations are not being repeated.

That the resources that will be diverted to the Southern border issues not detract from the interior court operations.

- What's the average wait time for a case that is waiting to be adjudicated in the system?

- The average wait, time is far too long.

And that again is due to the pending backlog, which is contributing to the crisis in our Immigration Court.

My docket right now is out to December, 2023.

And so, what we don't want to happen is that the non-citizens who are now coming in at our Southern borders, not jump the line as we saw in prior administrations.

Therefore, shuffling the deck and the dockets for individuals who have been patiently waiting for their turn to have their hearing.

So, I would say two to four years before you have your first hearing before me.

- So essentially, if you are an immigrant and you had a case that was pending previously and now this current surge is happening at the Southwest border, it puts or pushes you back toward the end of the line.

Is that correct?

- Not necessarily.

That's what happened with the prior administrations.

So, what there was, was sort of a political football with our Immigration Courts.

And that's what we are concerned for.

Our courts are housed in the Department of Justice which is our primary law enforcement branch in the United States.

And therefore, the priorities of law enforcement take precedent.

The prior administration prioritized law enforcement in removals.

And so, when I note that the cases would go to the back of the line, that's what we're asking that not occur in this, go around.

There are alternative solutions to remedy those problems.

There can be removal of many cases that are already existing on our docket through stipulation and settlement through working collectively with the Department of Homeland Security, by returning tools that were taken away from immigration judges by the prior administration, such as administrative closure and the use of our discretion.

- Alright, Judge Amiena Khan, representing the National Association of Immigration Judges joining us from Baltimore, Maryland.

Thank you for your insight.

(soft music) So much needed rain fell across parts of Southern Arizona.

This month offering a small amount of respite to a region experiencing serious drought.

Tony Paniagua visited two mountain ranges to see firsthand how it is impacting the land and those who call it home.

- [Tony] The Patagonia mountains in Santa Cruz County provide habitats for a variety of native plants and animals but many are in danger.

A persistent drought is testing their long-term adaptability for survival.

- This is an Arizona wide Oak, and you can see by the dead leaves on it, that it's really struggling from the drought that we're in right now.

- [Tony] John Wiens retired from the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum last year, where he worked in the botany department.

He's visited this area often, and he's very concerned by what he sees.

Depending on factors, such as the plant's location, exposure to the sun and type of soil, many are struggling.

- Well this is an alligator juniper, evergreen, and you can see the stress on this tree from the drought is just phenomenal.

I don't know that I've ever seen junipers that you can just crumble the leaves like this.

(cow mows) - Hello ladies.

- [Tony] These mountains are also home to Christin Peterson's cattle operation.

She owns 200 acres and leases thousands more.

It hasn't been enough even for her relatively small herd.

- The one creek we just came out of right now, the winter rains would have had that just flowing.

(dog barks) And now we just have puddles, scary.

(wind blows) Normally we get 18 to 21 inches of rain.

And this last year we've had maybe eight to 10.

So we have to start making some decisions on what we're gonna do with the cattle.

- [Tony] Peterson is having to supplement their food and like other ranchers in the state, she's also thinning the herd.

Culling cows that would normally provide next year's batch of calves.

(cow mows) (dog barks) (cow mows) - My animals mean a lot.

And they're pretty much my friends.

So having to ship them, it's like taking your grandma to market.

It's not a fun thing to do.

- It's serious.

- Yeah it's is serious.

- [Tony] The National Drought Mitigation Center has five categories for these dry conditions.

From bad to worse, they are; abnormally dry, moderate drought, severe drought extreme drought, and exceptional drought.

Across Arizona, more than half of the state is currently exceptional.

And this includes large swaths of Cochise, Graham, Santa Cruz and Pima counties.

- Its' really amazing from the desert up into the mountains.

that this 26 year drought that we're in has really affected the plant life.

- [Tony] Under an exceptional drought, bodies of water evaporate, large fires could occur year round and some native plants begin to die.

(leaves crackling) - And you can see this branch has gone.

The whole plant is probably gonna survive this year but many more years like this and then boom.

- [Tony] North of Tucson in the Tortolita mountains, we meet with John Weins again.

Here he points out struggling desert hackberry, ho-ho-bah, and other Sonoran desert species that would normally be thriving after nourishing winter rains.

- Nothing lives in a vacuum out here nothing lives alone.

The animals don't survive without the plants and vice versa.

So, everything's tied together and we've seen how we lose pieces of the web of life and things go on maybe, but you lose too many pieces and it's just not gonna be a good thing.

- [Tony] But even in this devastation, there's a glimmer of hope.

Some hardy annuals are managing to sprout.

- This is probably in response to February's rain.

So, life does find a way.

- [Tony] Shrubs, trees and animals need much more moisture however, so ranchers like Peterson are crossing their fingers.

We pray it's going to rain and we hope and hope isn't a strategic plan, but we do know that rain dancing can help.

Anyway, we'll call each other a text and say, "You better start dancing."

(soft music) - This week, in Arizona, 16 and up became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine at the state's P.O.D at the U of A.

During his visit to the site, Governor Ducey announced that Arizona would administer its 3 million dose by the end of the day.

His office later announced it would peel back more COVID-19 restrictions, including phasing out local mask mandates.

Our sit down with the governor happened before then, we discussed how the state's vaccination efforts got to this point.

- So the combination of additional supply from the federal government, along with additional sites available in which to distribute this, allows us to take it to 16 and older and really go out to the general population at this time with still a focus of course, on minority and underserved communities.

We can do both at the same time but we've been in several months now in setting up the infrastructure.

- The infrastructure though, when it comes to technology may not be in place 'cause there are still people who are sitting there pressing refresh trying to get an appointment.

- So if they're going online today they are having to hit refresh because the 38,000 available appointments were snatched up in 20 minutes.

If they were there yesterday they would have had an appointment scheduled.

What we're doing is increasing capacity on the website the server, and where people are making phone calls to set the appointment along with additional supply.

So there's more appointments available but I know it's been frustrating.

We've been working on it since the beginning.

It's improved along the way.

And as we have more demand, it can continue to be a challenge.

- The same day the governor visited the States P.O.D at the U of A, the Pima County board of supervisors voted unanimously on a resolution asking Ducey to reconsider denied FEMA permission to set up its own vaccination P.O.Ds in the County, that it says would fully vaccinate up to 200,000 people.

- This week, you clarify that Pima County and the state you'll be reconsidering Pima county's request for FEMA assistance.

Can you give us some insight as to why maybe the request was not immediately accepted early on?

- Well, what we wanna do is get vaccinations out.

That's the business we're in, is getting shots into arms.

So when you say FEMA that stands for the Federal Government, what we need from the federal government right now, is more supply, more inventory, more Pfizer Moderna and Johnson.

That's what we need.

What the federal government wants to do is come and set up an additional site that can only distribute 6,000 vaccines where the state can distribute 60,000 and they would need our resources and volunteers to staff it.

So what we're trying to do is just have clarity so that the federal government understands that Arizona is different than some other States in terms of infrastructure already established and just gets us the supply available.

- Well, the last thing on vaccines there are people who feel miffed by the process because perhaps they had cancer, but they didn't qualify because of their age and now everyone can get it.

What do you say to them about some of the decisions that you and Dr. Chris have made together?

- Every decision we've made has been around public health for the majority of Arizonans while focusing first and foremost on those that are in the vulnerable categories.

And that really has been 75 and older and people with an underlying health condition and each expansion that we've had a vaccination available has taken that into account with additional supply and additional appointments, we can hit the most vulnerable who need this while also vaccinating the general public.

It's the more people that have the vaccine will make the state even safer and have us back to normal.

- Pima County hopes to have 75% of its residents fully vaccinated by August reaching so-called herd immunity.

Leaders say FEMA vaccination sites would help achieve their goal sooner.

Tony Paniagua spoke to the county's chief medical officer, Dr. Francisco Garcia about supply and demand.

- How would you describe the cooperation that you've had with the state?

I know for example, that just on Wednesday the state opened up vaccinations to anyone 16 and over that's not the case with Pima County.

Why are we hearing different stories depending on the jurisdiction?

- Well, at the end of the day Tony, we can't give vaccine that we don't have.

And the state has not put that kind of numbers of vaccines in our hands to be able to put into people's arms.

So one of the big challenges for us is how to best try to reconcile these expectations that are being set by the state, with what the expectations and the capabilities.

And honestly, the vaccine supply that we have in order to meet them.

But I will tell you that effective on Thursday, rather, the Public Health Advisory has shifted to more closely aligned with the state's language - Pima County supervisors want the governor to reconsider denying permission to FEMA to open up a P.O.D that could vaccinate up to 200,000 residents here in Pima County.

What is your take on that, what's happening?

- So, Tony, quite honestly, we had a really great visit with the regional administrator for FEMA here last Friday or actually the Thursday before then.

And at the conclusion of that visit really led us to believe that FEMA is ready and willing to put up hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses in Pima County, into the state for the service of Pima County residents.

That they're willing to staff it, they are willing to stand it up and that they just need sort of the the green light from the governor's office in order to do that.

For a variety of reasons that offer was rejected.

And this is the board taking action to codify and memorialize that statement and to make sure that they know that the governor knows it that we are fully supportive of such an action.

- As a medical doctor would you say that the distribution has been fair and equitable to all of the populations here in the state or specifically to Pima County since that's who you represent?

- At the end of the day, what matters is the number of people sort of covered.

The state will argue that we are receiving our fair share of vaccine.

I will argue back, that the state P.O.Ds have really sucked up a lot of vaccine volume, that could have been more efficiently used by our County in particular.

It doesn't really matter.

I want the U of A state P.O.D to be successful.

And I need for all of our own P.O.Ds here, our collaborative P.O.Ds to also be successful.

So, it is not about who's doing what, it's about how do we put all these efforts together in an effort to achieve the kind of vaccine coverage that we need in order to protect this community.

- Dr. Francisco Garcia, thank you very much for joining us.

- Thank you, Tony.

- That's all for now.

Thanks for joining us.

To get in touch, visit us on social media or send an email to arizona360@azpm.org and let us know what you think.

We'll see you next week.

(soft music)