(upbeat music) - [Lorraine] The Biden administration's early actions on border and immigration policy.

- We feel the urgency, and the migrants that are here, feel the urgency.

- [Lorraine] Their impacts in Arizona.

- All the people here, most of them, about 80% are people that are working on the wall currently.

- [Lorraine] And ongoing challenges that remain unaddressed.

- Border communities to continue to be impacted by border crossing restrictions.

(upbeat music) - Hello, and welcome to Arizona 360, I'm Lorraine Rivera.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Early on President Biden has indicated his immigration strategy will be a sharp departure from his predecessors.

A series of new directives and executive orders underscore their differences.

During his first week in office- - There is no time to waste, get to work immediately.

- [Lorraine] President Biden acted quickly to reverse some of the Trump administration's most contentious policies.

(truck beeping) Halting new border construction, ending the so-called Muslim travel ban and rescinding the zero tolerance policy that resulted in thousands of family separations.

(car engine roaring) Other steps included introducing the citizenship act of 2021.

A bill that would pave the way for many immigrants to become citizens in eight years.

But already, some States are pushing back against Biden's agenda.

Texas successfully got a federal judge to block an executive order that pauses most deportations for 100 days.

Something Arizona Attorney General, Mark Brnovich also spoke out against, in a letter that called the policy illegal and a violation of a deal the State had with Homeland Security under Trump.

Watching closely what comes out of the White House next is the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales, Sonora.

As we've reported, the nonprofit sees firsthand the effects of U.S immigration policies, providing aid to migrants and deportees.

A daunting task made even more difficult by the pandemic and so-called remain in Mexico policies that prevented asylum seekers from entering the U.S. KBI's Tracey Horan spoke to us about some of the challenges migrants continue to face.

If people aren't able to spend the night away from the elements in your shelter, but they don't have the resources, where are they going?

Or what are they doing?

- Yeah, it's pretty common for people in Nogales who are migrants waiting for asylum to stay in rooms that they rent.

So you might have two or three families that pool their money together, and they rent a small room.

Most of those places don't have access to heat.

There are also some people, we do have some shelters here in Nogales, Sonora, but the shelter space is limited.

And so I talked to someone the other day who slept outside, who slept in the cemetery is kind of common, but it's very concerning because right now with the conditions, it's snowing today.

And so really the harsh conditions making it really difficult for people who don't have access to a place to stay.

- And the Migrant Protection Protocols, program or system was still in place back then.

I understand now it's being scaled back, but what are people doing for finances?

I mean, do they get jobs in the interim?

Are they able to?

- It's very difficult, it depends on whether someone can access an ID here in Mexico.

And so similar to the U.S, Mexico has certain restrictions for people to find employment.

And so many people struggle because their employers won't hire them.

The employers here in Sonora are looking for that same verification that they have legal status in Mexico.

Unfortunately with the uncertainty, this length of time that some of them thought maybe they would wait a month or two, now has just ballooned into two years or a year and a half.

So some of them do find odd jobs.

We have services here to connect them with work, but we've run up against the same obstacles of people not having the ID that they need to work here in Mexico.

- What are these migrants telling you about their hopes for the Biden administration, given that so far we've heard there are plans to scale back the previous administration?

- Yeah.

So it's been challenging.

We feel hopeful, you know, as you mentioned, they're not entering new people into their main Mexico program, so that's hope for us.

But at the same time we feel the urgency and the migrants that are here feel the urgency, because every day that they're reading and they don't have answers, is another day their kids don't have access to education.

It's another day that they're in a cold room where they don't have heat.

In you know, below freezing temperatures.

- It seems every administration promises some new attempted immigration, whether it's Democrat or Republican.

What is your hope that this time is different?

- The hope for us would be comprehensive immigration reform.

We're really hopeful about the new proposals that we've seen from the Biden administration.

That really people who have been in the U.S without access to a legal pathway, will finally have some hope.

And pieces of that effect the folks who are here waiting as well.

What we would hope for, is to have more consensus from both sides of the aisle.

People that see the value of migrants and also the need for a dignified process.

And so you know, that proposal brings us a lot of hope.

The question for us is, whether people will come together around (indistinct) move it forward, which we hope that they will.

- Okay.

Tracey Horan from the Kino Border Initiative.

Thank you.

- Thank you so much.

(car engine roaring) - Policies from the Trump administration meant to restrict entry into the U.S have not deterred some from trying.

The number of adults apprehended at the Southern border last month, soared by nearly 180% compared to the previous year.

Apprehensions for unaccompanied children also went up.

But agents encountered about 50%, fewer families.

Attention this month turned to reports of a caravan from Honduras, that clash with authorities in Guatemala.

As for some of the drivers shaping recent migration patterns we learn more from Javier Osorio, an expert on criminal violence in Latin America.

He's based at the university of Arizona.

There are multiple reports of yet another caravan making its way North from Central America.

What is the push as of recent, does it have to do with the the transition of power here in the United States?

- I don't think so.

Always with migration we have to keep into consideration two factors.

We have the push factors that are the things that motivate people to leave, and the pull factors.

And those are the things that drive people to search on locations.

People concerned about the Biden administration relaxing some of the really hard policies, immigration policies that we saw with the previous administration, might consider that this is an important pool factor, right?

That is actually attracting migration to the U.S.

But let's keep an eye on the more important push factors that have to do with really bad economic conditions in Central America and Mexico caused by the COVID pandemic, that is impacting all over the world including the U.S. And also the violence associated with poverty that is also harming these communities.

So when we put things in comparison maybe yes, it could be a little bit of an effect of relaxing immigration policies in the U.S as a pull factor.

But when we consider the push conditions of economic hardship and insecurity in these countries, that really has a lot more weight in informing the decisions of these huge numbers of people moving across the border.

- Economic hardship has always been a challenge for communities in Central America.

- Yes, absolutely, but now with the COVID pandemic, we have pretty much all over the world economies totally paralyzed without sufficient support from the government, because the government in Central America they have a lot less resources and State capacity to actually provide safetyness for people, so the fall of the Central American economist is way sharper than the one we see in the U.S, that's also includes Mexico.

- Now should those people make their way through Mexico to the U.S port of entry?

I mean, we saw last year and the year before that, where hundreds of people would sit outside ports of entries waiting to request asylum?

What is your read on, if this administration will handle that differently?

- Apparently there are important changes in how the new administration is going to handle these entry requests or asylum requests.

One of those important changes is ending the waiting Mexico program that has been in Mexico.

And that will change the conditions, because the conditions where these people are in Mexico are in very hard or very poor conditions in terms of the safety and their human agglomeration, with the COVID pandemic is becoming a health issue, ending that program and having people wait for their court hearing, immigration courts hearing in the U.S, will actually pull them away from those vulnerable situations.

So that is one of the consequences and hopefully we'll see from the Biden administration.

But at the same time we have to take these with cautious skepticism, right?

Which is, during the Obama administration, when now President Biden was Vice President.

I mean, Obama deported a lot more people than the entire Trump administration.

So we might see different way of handling cases, but the number of the petitions that we saw in terms of the personal trajectory of President Biden, we also know that he's inclined of increasing levels of deportations.

So we'll have to celebrate these new policies being rolled out, but also we have to be careful and skeptical, remain skeptical about how they handle these in a more humanitarian way.

- Among those factors, many of us here think that it's work or it's drug-related, but you're saying there are other factors that could be driving these patterns.

- Great, borders face different types of flows in different directions.

From the U.S side, the biggest flows that we are concerned are drug trafficking and human trafficking.

That's migration flaws.

From the Mexican side, a big concern by the current administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is arm trafficking from the U.S down into Mexico, which is actually all the guns that end up in the hands of criminal organizations causing all these violence.

There's not much discussion going on in the U.S about the responsibility of U.S authorities at the federal level and local level, about efforts to stopping arms trafficking to Mexico.

But the Mexican government has been putting that topic very high on the agenda, and that is one of the discussions that they will have to have in terms of the new incoming administration of President Biden and the Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

- Whether or not these policies happen at the federal level, and then take action at the local level, for example, in a border state like Arizona remains to be seen.

- Absolutely, one of the cases that we see in all administrations or bureaucratic or organizations, is what is known as the principal agent problem, where the principal might actually make a command, but the agent's implementing that policy might have different ways of doing that.

So even if the Biden administration makes some high level policy changes, the ones in-charge of implementing those policies might actually have a lot of leeway and discretion in how they actually implement those policies or not.

- Okay.

Professor Javier Osorio, thank you for your insight.

- Sure.

Thank you very much.

(crowd chanting) - Other steps taken by the Biden administration indicate a willingness to provide a pathway to citizenship for DACA recipients.

The program shields some immigrants from deportation, mainly if they were brought to the U.S illegally as children.

President Obama created the program through an executive order, and the Trump administration tried and failed to overturn it in court.

The day of his inauguration, Biden issued a memorandum to quote, "preserve and fortify DACA" as for what that signals to advocacy groups.

We got analysis from Arizona Republic Border and Immigration Reporter Rafael Carranza.

There are about 7,000 DACA recipients in the State of Arizona.

Every administration seems to indicate there's going to be a path for them.

What's different this time around?

- I think one of the biggest differences this time around is you know, the level of enthusiasm and even, you know, somewhat commitment and signaling that the Biden administration has issued.

It's very significant that in the very first day of office, they issued several executive orders that seem to revoke a lot of the policies from President Donald Trump.

And I think that that has been very encouraging to a lot of the advocates.

You know, they know that it's still, you know, gonna be an uphill battle as is always the case with immigration and certainly with a bill of this scope which provides a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country.

You know, there definitely will be a lot of challenges.

One of the main one is gonna be finding Republicans who support this legislation in the Senate.

And I think the advocates are very aware that that's gonna be a challenge, which is why they've started ramping up, you know, pressure not just for DACA, but also with some of other beneficiaries like Temporary Protected Status, who have really kind of ramped up, you know, talking about personal experiences, but also, you know, sending letters, doing a lot more advocacy towards the Biden administration.

And I'm sure we'll see also in the coming weeks and months more targeted advocacy to some of the Republican lawmakers, who could be kind of the deal breakers or deal makers when it comes to the immigration bill - Essentially the legal limbo for those families continues.

- Essentially, yes, and I think it should be noted that one of the executive orders that President Biden signed is to strengthen DACA protections.

There hadn't been a lot of issues in the last few months of the Trump administration, because even though court rulings had stood by the program itself, the administration had delayed processing new applications, you know, existing applicants as well.

And so the idea or the thinking is that under Biden now, those applications and the program as it stands now will be strengthened and fortified But you know, the question now will also turn to what happens to those individuals who are not in DACA, but all groups could also qualify sort of protection later on.

- Okay, Rafael, can you explain migrant protection protocols temporarily halted, but Title 42 and that's immediately deporting people due to the public health emergency continues.

Encounters per the department of Homeland Security website continue, so what does that mean as we move forward here in the next few months?

- For now it means that everything will kind of remain the same for the time being until the Biden administration issues any sort of new guidance or any new directives when it comes to either of these two policies.

And I do wanna clarify when it comes to the Migrant Protection Protocols, they did pause any new enrollments in the program.

So they are no longer sending individuals back to Mexico under the program (mumbles) in Mexico, but Biden did not address, you know, what's gonna happen all of the, you know, thousands of people that were already sent or that already waiting in Mexico.

The Biden administration also made it clear that they would keep Title 42 in place.

And with that policy they've been able to turn away approximately 400,000 migrants since the pandemic restrictions began in March.

That will continue for the time being.

So anybody who attempts to cross the border illegally, they will be detained and returned back to Mexico in as quickly as two hours, so that will continue.

For the foreseeable future, Biden administration has committed to ending both are those policies.

I think that the key issue here will be finding a way to roll back Title 42 without overwhelming the system or exposing more of the agents to possible exposure to COVID-19 and other other risks.

- All right, very much remains to be seen.

Rafael Carranza, from the Arizona Republic, thank you for your work.

- Thank you for having me.

- For mandates on immigration to decisions on border infrastructure.

On day one, President Biden ordered construction to stop on all the new border wall system.

A bedrock of the Trump administration that gave rise to numerous legal challenges.

Controversies aside, some border communities benefited from the influx of temporary workers contracted to build the wall.

Tony Paniagua traveled to Douglas for the story.

(car engine roaring) - [Tony] The border wall is divisive geographically, politically and emotionally.

But in places like Douglas, Arizona, the construction of this contentious project has been bringing a welcome financial boost.

- That's helped, helped tremendously.

- [Tony] From restaurants and local stores to RV parks and apartment units, workers need places to eat or live.

Mike Gutierrez founded a Realtor company in 2009.

It manages various properties in the area, including this one.

- This is the Hidden Treasures, RV park.

There's 110 spaces here, and it's been great.

All the people here, most of them, about 80% are people that are working on the wall currently.

And so with the shortage of homes in Douglas, it's been a help that this property was here to help fill the need.

- [Tony] Luis Pedroza is the interim city manager in Douglas, he says hundreds of workers for the wall project by Southwest Valley Constructors, began arriving in the summer of 2019.

- Definitely, they are a large employer here right now in the city, top five for our city.

So they're definitely contributing a large part to our economy right now.

- [Tony] Asadero El Guero, Mexican restaurant opened three years ago, just a few blocks North of the border.

Since the pandemic began, cook Miguel Coronado says business has dropped dramatically.

So the temporary workers for the wall had been an essential asset.

About 12 families depend on this restaurant for an income.

So every meal served is vital for their bottom line.

(foreign language) - [Translator] It'd be good if these people wouldn't leave, but we hear construction is coming to an end soon.

We have been able to manage because people in Douglas got to know us and still support us.

But I personally know of other merchants who haven't been so lucky and we're forced to shut down.

We've had to cut employee hours and hoping to survive a few more months to avoid layoffs.

- [Tony] Moving forward local say what would help them most, would be to reopen the federal ports of entry.

Due to the pandemic, they have been officially closed to non-essential travelers.

- Our estimate is that our shoppers from Mexico contributed about 70% of our sales tax revenue on the retail and restaurant sectors, so it's a huge driver.

- [Tony] Interim city manager, Luis Pedroza says more Douglas residents are staying in town and shopping locally.

And along with taxes from online sales and federal cares money, the city is doing better than expected.

As for the wall, he says the project's contractor was scheduled to build a total of more than 40 miles East and West of the city.

With a few miles remaining, whether they will finish the job is unclear.

The department of Homeland Security and Southwest Valley Constructors did not respond to emails about the project's cost and status and time for this story.

(car engine roaring) President Joe Biden seven day compliance window to halt the project has expired and construction is reported to have stopped along the border.

For wall opponents such as environmental groups, local residents and like-minded politicians, this is a welcome change from the Trump administration.

They say these projects have devastated Pristine Desert habitats for plants and wildlife, endangered aquifers and divided animal populations.

So activists want at least some sections of the wall to be removed.

For other people in towns like Douglas, the wall is just another part of life along the border.

- We're happy with the, you know, the construction and the jobs that it's brought.

I don't see any real significant impact in terms of of crossing, but you know, I don't know the numbers so.

Here Mexico to us is that's our family.

That's our cousins, our brothers, our sister.

My wife is from there.

We're all part of the same community.

So we're hoping they'll stay and take it down and keep the jobs around for a little longer (laughs).

(wind whooshing) - [Lorraine] About 80 miles West of Douglas, Nogales is dealing with the same economic constraints stemming from travel restrictions at its ports of entry.

Limited crossings took effect on March 21st of last year.

Since then mayor Arturo Garino says it has never been clear when the federal government will ease restrictions.

- Almost every month, they've been saying that the number is on the 21st of the month, that we expect it to open and then they'll call us and say now it's not gonna be okay, they're gonna extend it another month.

- As of the end of January, restrictions on cross border travel with Mexico and Canada will remain in effect through February 21st.

For more on the economic setbacks these restrictions have caused across Southern Arizona.

We spoke to international advisor, Luis Ramirez.

How has COVID-19, but then the additional port restrictions impacted border communities?

- You know Lorraine, I cannot overestimate the impact that COVID itself has had directly on the communities, as well as policies that have been state, national or international.

The U.S Census Bureau just released the data for 2020.

And I apologize, I have to read them.

They're fresh kind of off the presses.

But because of the border crossing restrictions that were imposed by U.S, Canada and Mexico limiting or restricting border crossings to only essential travel.

We see for the Arizona port of entry systems, cars for 2020 were down 32%, pedestrians were down 44%, total people, that's pedestrians people and cars, bicycles were down 43%, that translates to approximately 10 million people less across the Arizona Mexico border over 2019.

That is the spillover impacts of that huge number of people who are not crossing, not going to our stores, not going to a restaurant, not buying things.

Is a tremendous impact to our border communities but also to the state and to the nation.

- It's economically devastating because these communities rely on sales tax, and we have seen in Douglas and Nogales, I'm sure this is a case in San Luis where businesses have shut their doors.

- Many, many businesses are either closed down or on the brink of closing down.

You know, for our border communities they depend on anywhere between 50 to as much as 70% of the the sales tax revenue in those communities is directly attributable to the Mexican visitors.

So when you have a 45% drop in the number of people, it's just a huge impact.

I do have to add to that, that we've been very fortunate that over these past few years we've been working actively on major infrastructure investments.

The monetization is still at 189 in Nogales, the fixing of the IOI, the International Outfall Interceptor in Nogales, projects that are about to go online in Douglas, and are about to go online in San Luis.

Those sales tax for those major construction projects that are in the 100 $200 million range are sustaining the sales tax revenues on a whole.

But when you look at individual sales tax revenues, restaurants, shops, Walmart, all their sales are dramatically down.

- You also have the era of state and federal lawmakers here in Arizona, what do you recommend to them, during these precarious times?

- You know, I think for instance, proposal by congressman Willy Calva on the rescue act for small business, I think is absolutely an appropriate measure.

Why do we think that small businesses are worthy or deserving of this special attention, is because when, for instance the State of Arizona was shut down earlier in 2020, then there was a gradual opening.

But as we were discussing earlier, border communities continue to be impacted by border crossing restrictions even though you're able to move about in Arizona.

So the full recovery or the partial recovery of the economy in Arizona, border communities are still hindered in that recovery because of the border crossing restrictions that's why we're advocating for those provisions.

More of a long-term, I think there's lessons to be learned here.

You know, when we look at our ports of entry, they're built for, you know, a 20th century approach to border security, maybe some new technology, some of our most recent infrastructure.

But we now have to look at the health and safety, the health safety of the traveling public, of the CBP officers that are staffing those booths, how we approach security, how we approach infrastructure, how we approach procedures.

All of that is changing because of COVID-19.

- Late last year, you told me that it was obvious that border communities would need special attention coming out of this pandemic, do you still feel that way?

- Oh, absolutely.

You know, as long as the border crossing restrictions and I anticipate that will continue for several months, the impact of these border communities on both sides of the border, not just the Arizona side but also on the Sonara side, because U.S citizens are not traveling as much.

We see that in Puerto Peñasco or Rocky Point.

These are communities that there might be an international boundary dividing them, but they're fully interconnected communities.

So the inability to cross freely because of the COVID restrictions continues to have an impact and will until the restrictions are lifted.

The one thing that I do find I'll say of interest and it must be noted is that, border crossing restrictions were on the agenda for the Biden administration on their first three or four days.

It is important, happy to see that it's getting this level of attention.

Now we're waiting to see what they're gonna be putting forth as the new policy for the border All right.

Luis Ramirez, thank you for your insight.

- Thank you, Lorraine.

- That's all for now.

Thanks so much 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.

(upbeat music)