An extraordinary surge in migrant arrivals at the southern border is stretching humanitarian resources in Pima County to the breaking point and straining border enforcementβs capacity, especially as asylum seekers have been funneled to increasingly remote parts of the border.
The sustained high volume of arrivals in the borderβs Tucson sector, particularly since September, is unprecedented, local officials said.
βWeβve never had a surge that has lasted this long,β Mark Evans, Pima County spokesman, said on Friday.
Border crossings β including at the previously quiet San Miguel gate, on the Tohono Oβodham Nation; at Lukeville, about 150 miles southwest of Tucson; and at a remote border-wall gap, east of SΓ‘sabe β have been experiencing unusually high numbers of migrant arrivals.
Pima County is now spending $4 million per month in federal funds for transportation, shelter, medical care and other services for the migrants whom border agents release as legal asylum seekers, Evans said. Thatβs double the spending rate for the first half of the year.
GailΒ Kocourek, of the nonprofit Salvavision and the Tucson Samaritans, distributes water to asylum seekers from Chiapas, Mexico on Wednesday, Nov. 29. The travelers said they had been huddled at this remote place along the border, about 15 miles east of SΓ‘sabe, Ariz., since the previous night, awaiting border agents so they could surrender and request asylum.
Migrant-support agencies like Casa Alitas in Tucson have thus far been able to manage the flow of asylum seekers, helping them get to their destinations in other parts of the U.S., where they have family or sponsors. Most asylum seekers released to shelters in Tucson only stay a night or two before moving on.
But facing an unrelenting flow of arrivals β topping 1,000 per day for weeks β Pima County is getting closer to having unsheltered street releases of asylum seekers, local officials said.
As the Border Patrolβs capacity maxes out, agents may be forced to release legal asylum seekers without prior coordination with the nonprofits who help transport and shelter them on this leg of their journey.
These so-called βunsheltered street releasesβ have happened in small numbers in recent months in Cochise and Santa Cruz counties. But Pima County, in coordination with state emergency services, has been able to quickly send buses to transport asylum seekers to Tucson or Phoenix.
If the volume of arrivals doesnβt relent soon, unsheltered street releases will occur in Tucson, too, Evans said.
βThe question is, what is street release in Pima County going to look like?β Evans said. βIf itβs a couple dozen people a day, it probably wonβt be noticeable. If itβs several hundred people a day, it will be noticeable.β
An upcoming change in federal funding, which will add restrictions on how federal dollars can be used, would also reduce Pima Countyβs capacity to care for asylum seekers, as well as constrain its ability to assist border communities that donβt have the necessary transportation or shelter infrastructure, Evans said.
Since the end of the Title 42 pandemic expulsion policy, Pima County processed nearly 96,000 asylum seekers from July through October β more than in all of 2022, county records show. November figures are still being calculated, but will be even higher than the October total of 28,500, Evans said.
βWeβre on pace for this year to process more people in 2023 than we did between 2019 to 2022 combined,β he said.
Migrants unsheltered at border
Meanwhile, large numbers of migrants have been left waiting outside for days before the Border Patrol can retrieve and process them. They face harsh weather conditions, illness and hunger, asylum seekers at the border, east of SΓ‘sabe, told the Arizona Daily Star on Wednesday.
As construction teams close gaps left in the border wall that were previously an entry point for asylum seekers close to SΓ‘sabe, Arizona, many have resorted to crossing through another gap more than 10 miles to the east.
Thatβs left them in a hard-to-reach area of the border wall that some Border Patrol transport vans canβt access, due to the border roadβs steep inclines, aid workers said.
Vulnerable migrants, including sick children, have been left overnight in increasingly bitter temperatures, said Gail Kocourek, volunteer with the Tucson Samaritans and co-founder of migrant resource center Casa de la Esperanza in SΓ‘sabe, Sonora.
Last weekend the Samaritans, easily traversing the border roadβs hills in their all-wheel-drive Toyota 4Runner, saw more than 400 migrants in this remote place, including at least 200 children.
Some families the Samaritans encountered on Saturday were still awaiting the Border Patrol when Kocourek returned on Monday, she said.
On Wednesday, volunteers with the Tucson Samaritans aided more than 100 migrants in this part of the border wall area, between Fresnal Peak, about 9 miles east of SΓ‘sabe, and the end of the border wall southeast of Arivaca, where the mountainous terrain becomes impassable.
Asylum seekers await border agents at a remote place along the border wall, about 15 miles east of Sasabe, on Wednesday, Nov. 29. In the face of increasingly cold temperatures, the migrants made campfires and built make-shift shelters using blankets provided by aid workers and hay bales they found near the 30-foot border wall.
The migrants β all asylum seekers eagerly awaiting the arrival of border agents β were mostly from southern Mexico, as well as Latin American countries including El Salvador and Guatemala.
Standing beside a smoldering campfire in front of the 30-foot-tall border wall, Hugo Perez, 27, said he and his family are fleeing violence in their home state of Chiapas, in southern Mexico.
βThe narco-traffickers have advanced a lot there,β he said in Spanish. Armed men in the streets and kidnappings were common in their home town, Perez and his companions said. Boys and men were vulnerable to being forced into working for organized crime groups.
Perez was traveling with a group of about 20 friends and family from Chiapas, including his 3-year-old son, also named Hugo, who was eagerly snacking on a granola bar and juice pouch distributed by the Samaritans.
Theyβd been traveling for a month to arrive here. The cold and hunger were their biggest challenges along their journey, especially for the children, Perez said. After arriving late the previous night, they spent a cold, sleepless night on the ground, lighting campfires to try to stay warm, they said.
The group traveled together for safety, as protection against both organized crime groups and corrupt police in Mexico, who are known to extort migrants on their journey, Perez said.
Asylum seeker Juan Pablo Portio, 48, of El Salvador said he was assaulted and robbed by police as he traveled through Mexico, and that it would not have been safe for him to stay there.
βItβs very corrupt,β he said.
Asylum seeker Yolanda Alvarez, who said her family is fleeing violence in Chiapas, asked the Samaritans whether la migra β border agents β would arrive before nightfall, or whether she and her children should start walking eastward toward SΓ‘sabe, in hope of encountering border agents sooner.
βWe donβt want to spend another night here,β she said. βThe cold is unbearable for the children.β
There was no easy answer: The hilly walk to SΓ‘sabe would be exhausting and long, especially for travelers who are already weak and hungry, aid workers said. Yet there was no guarantee the Border Patrol would make it out here that day.
More border resources needed
In light of the large numbers of migrants arriving at Lukeville, U.S. Customs and Border Protection announced on Friday it will temporarily shut down the port of entry there starting Monday.
βBoth northbound and southbound pedestrian and vehicle traffic at Lukeville Port of Entry will be suspended until further notice,β a Friday statement said, directing travelers to enter or exit the U.S. through the Nogales or San Luis, Arizona, ports of entry.
On Friday, Arizona state Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, called on Gov. Katie Hobbs to deploy the National Guard to the border βto help alleviate the overwhelmed law enforcement currently battling this crisis.β
He also pressed Arizonaβs congressional delegation to demand a reversal of the decision to close the Lukeville port, a popular crossing point for Arizonans traveling to the beach at Rocky Point, Sonora.
βForcing Arizonans to travel hours out of their way on routes vulnerable to cartel organizations, terrorists, and other criminals seeking to do harm is completely unacceptable,β he said in an emailed statement. βIβm demanding swift action from Hobbs to protect our citizens and our communities.β
More resources are desperately needed to care for and transport asylum seekers out of Pima County, and neighboring border communities in Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, local officials say.
In late November, Rick Saling of the Tucson Samaritans watches the arrival of his fellow volunteers, who had driven to the top of a steep border-road hill to try to get cell phone reception at the remote crossing point, about 15 miles east of SΓ‘sabe, Arizona.
The small border communities have been relying on Pima Countyβs support services, and its federal funding, to help manage the situation, said Pima County Supervisor Adelita Grijalva on Thursday. She was returning from a trip to Washington, D.C., where she met with Arizonaβs congressional delegation and made the case for why Pima County needs more funding to receive and process asylum seekers released to the community.
βPima County has been carrying the water not just for Arizona, but for the entire country,β she said. βWe need more resources if they want us to continue to be able to provide these services. And if we donβt provide these services, I think that will very quickly become a national emergency.β
Grijalva said Border Patrol officials told her the Tucson sector received 115,000 border-crossers in October and November, compared to 77,000 in the sector with the next-highest volume, the Del Rio sector in Texas.
Impending changes in the financing mechanism the county has relied upon mean Pima County will only have enough funding to care for only 700 asylum seekers per day, compared to 1,500 under an earlier FEMA funding mechanism, she said.
βItβs not our job at the county level to fix this federal problem,β Grijalva said. βWeβve just been trying to manage it the best we can. I think itβs important for our federal representatives to hear that we canβt manage it anymore without a lot of help.β
Across the entire southern border, agents actually encountered fewer migrants between ports of entry in October, compared to Septemberβs border-wide statistics, even as the arrivals in the Tucson sector surged, according to CBP data.
Trends in migration routes are always evolving and difficult to anticipate, said Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, associate policy analyst with the Washington, D.C.-based Migration Policy Institute.
But word of mouth, and human smugglersβ perception of border enforcement patterns, play a major role in where migrants end up crossing into the U.S., she said.
βEven if itβs not true or (is) misguided, word of mouth is prolific,β she said. βItβs hard to predict (where migration will surge) because there are so many different factors that drive it.β
Prioritizing remote areas
This week CBP announced that agents would be temporarily reassigned from operational duties, such as processing vehicle entries at ports of entry and manning checkpoints, in order to concentrate personnel on receiving and processing migrant arrivals. The Tucson sector has even paused social media updates to direct those personnel to where they are more needed, Tucson sector Chief John Modlin said last Sunday.
The shift appears to be making a difference, aid workers report.
On Thursday, another 700 asylum seekers arrived at Lukeville, in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, said Laurie Cantillo, board member and water-truck driver for Humane Borders.
The presence of additional border agents appeared to help quell the chaotic situation, she said.
But further west of Lukeville, thereβs still no Border Patrol presence, she said.
βWe remain concerned about lack of resources along the wall to the west, where asylum seekers enter and sometimes walk up to two days. Hundreds are left in the desert overnight,β she said on Friday. βWhile it appears to be more orderly at Lukeville the last two days, itβs still a heartbreaking situation. There are men, women, and children who remain in a dangerous desert environment, without adequate food, water, or shelter. Many walk for days and have serious and sometimes life-threatening medical issues.β
On Thursday CBP spokesman John Mennell said the Border Patrol has also been prioritizing patrols in these remote locations, including east of SΓ‘sabe, as migration trends have shifted.
Aid workers said thereβs been an improvement in responsiveness to the area. Around 3 p.m. Wednesday, the Tucson Samaritans saw the arrival of eight Border Patrol trucks and vans at the border-crossing site east of SΓ‘sabe, where they were distributing food and medicine to waiting asylum seekers.
As the trucks pulled up, asylum seekers scrambled to gather their belongings and make sure they were ready for whatever was ahead. Agents didnβt have space for everyone, but loaded up as many as possible into their 13-passenger vans and smaller SUVs.
The Border Patrol does not coordinate with aid groups along the border, Mennell of CBP said. Additional people in the area can be dangerous, not only because of its remoteness, but the proximity to armed criminals just over the border and the potential for collisions between vehicles driving up and down blind hills.
The border wall now features βno trespassingβ signs, initially aimed at the often-armed vigilantes who had been spending nights here, harassing migrants and aid workers, Kocourek said.
The 60-foot-wide strip of land along the international border with Mexico is known as the Roosevelt Reservation, and itβs owned by CBP, so technically aid workers are also trespassing there.
But Kocourek said agents seem to increasingly tolerate, and even welcome, aid workersβ presence and their reports of migrants with medical needs, especially as the Samaritansβ trucks are better equipped to traverse the steep hills along the border road than the older Border Patrol transport vans.
By late afternoon on Wednesday, the Samaritans were ready to return home, picking up trash and blankets and extinguishing smoldering camp fires from the now empty area where one group of migrants had been.
Another set of Border Patrol vehicles drove by, returning to SΓ‘sabe with their trucks full of as many asylum seekers as possible.
As he passed, one agent advised the Samaritans that 25 migrants were still left behind, at a nearby spot along the border wall.
Not knowing whether agents would return for another transport that night, the Samaritans returned to the site to offer the last of their food, and words of comfort, to the people left behind.
Driving back toward SΓ‘sabe, Kocourekβs sadness was evident.
βI hate leaving them,β she said. βBut I donβt know what else we can do for them.β
But before long, multiple Border Patrol trucks came roaring down the road, headed back to retrieve the waiting asylum seekers who would at least have shelter for the night.
An agent leaned out the window and grinned as the Samaritans waved happily, calling, βThank you!β
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