Arizona’s border is getting overrun with illegal immigrants, just like the Texas border, despite the lack of media attention on the former, according to the state’s governor.
Governor Doug Ducey (R-AZ) told The Washington Examiner in an interview published last week that his state’s border is “just as out of control.” In Arizona’s Yuma region, Border Patrol encounters with suspected illegal immigrants have increased over 1,000% year-over-year.
“What’s already happening in Yuma is reflective of what’s happening on the Texas border,” Ducey said. “Arizona is a border state. We faced this before, but we’ve never faced a crisis this large in 21 years.”
An illegal immigrant population nearly equal to the population of Yuma has illegally crossed the border since the start of the 2021 fiscal year in October 2020 through August. Yuma, which has about 96,000 residents, is currently experiencing a daily rush over about 1,000 illegal immigrants, according to The Washington Examiner.
Ducey has continued to rip President Joe Biden for causing the immigration crisis through lax border enforcement. Last week, Ducey joined nine other Republican governors, in a joint press conference, calling on Biden to address the crisis at the U.S. southern border and detailing steps the administration could take to curb the surge of illegal migrants.
“Governors are not going to sit around while President Biden refuses to act,” Ducey said. “We’ve tried to meet with the president and be part of the solution, but he refuses. No, worse — he ignores governors, just like he’s ignoring the border and the safety of the American people.”
“The White House has suggested there are no solutions or steps they could take on the border. This is false,” the Arizona governor added. “If the president won’t meet, we have laid out a comprehensive set of policy actions — publicly — that would end the border crisis immediately. President Biden now has everything he needs to stop this crisis.”
Governor Greg Abbott (R-TX) has been one of the most outspoken governors over the border crisis, continually hitting Biden and calling for stronger federal enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. On Thursday, Abbott sent a letter to Biden appealing the president’s decision to reject the governor’s earlier request to issue an emergency declaration over the border crisis in Texas.
“I request that you reconsider your denial of an emergency declaration for the State of Texas as a result of the ongoing border crisis, which reached such magnitude and duration that, on May 31, 2021, I formally recognized the disaster, and which continues to escalate as evidenced by the dire situation in Val Verde County,” Abbott wrote.
“The Department of Homeland Security’s strategy to address the migrant crisis has not alleviated the need for federal assistance to allow Val Verde County and the State of Texas to effectively respond to and recover from the ongoing border crisis,” he added.