The border crisis has a new victim– US citizens who live near the border and legally cross from the US to Mexico on a regular basis.
With a surge of migrants illegally flooding into the US west of Lukeville, Arizona, US border officials have shut down the port of entry in town to legitimate traffic.
The Tucson area, which Lukeville is part of, has seen 17,500 encounters in a single week— the highest weekly total ever recorded.
As thousands of migrants from around the world illegally slip into the nation by simply squeezing through openings in the border wall, federal agents at the port of entry have been sent to help understaffed Border Patrol officers handle the surge of unauthorized migrants.
The port of entry has been closed– a move that will cost businesses in Arizona thousands of dollars a day as legal crossers scramble to figure out how they will get to work and school on either the US or Mexican side.
The humanitarian and growing economic crisis has prompted both US Senators from the Grand Canyon to call on President Biden to send National Guard troops in to re-open the port of entry.
Migrants from various Africa and Latin American nations walk towards the temporary processing center set up near Lukeville, Arizona after crossing illegally into the US from Mexico, as the number of migrants surges
Migrants wait to be processed and transported at a Border Patrol temporary processing center near Lukeville, Arizona, U.S. on December 12, 2023
In remote Lukeville, Arizona (some 2.5 hours from Tucson, the US Customs and Border Protection port of entry has been shut down due to a surge in illegal border crossings west of town
‘For far too long, Arizona communities have paid the price for Washington’s failures on the border,’ Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly said in a joint statement Tuesday.
‘This decision is an unacceptable outcome that further destabilizes our border, risks the safety of our communities, and damages our economy. Our ports of entry are key drivers of economic growth and security in our state, and it is critical that they be properly staffed and resourced.’
The closure will hurt US citizens like Stephanie Fierro, 26 who lives in Arizona, but whose Mexican husband lives south of the border can’t cross into the US.
“We come and go every day,” the eight-months pregnant mom told the New York Times.
She’s hoping the port of entry opens so she can see her husband before their second child is born.
Port of entry agents in blue, assist Border Patrol agents in green, with processing migrants near Lukeville, Arizona
Migrants are body searched before boarding a bus at the temporary processing center after crossing the border wall into the U.S. from Mexico, as the number of migrants surges in the border town of Lukeville, Arizona
The US port of entry is closed last week due to an influx of migrants in Lukeville, Arizona
Gov. Katie Hobbs has also asked Pres. Biden to redirect some 200 National Guard members already in the Tucson area to Lukeville.
She has demanded $512 million from the federal government to repay what the state has spent on the border crisis.
Border Patrol agents are so overwhelmed in the remote desert hot spot– some 2.5 hours from Tucson– that they have used charter flights to transfer some migrants to El Paso, Texas and two other cities in the Lone Star State to process the border crossers.
Additionally, federal air marshals who usually guard commercial flights Federal Protective Service officers who guard U.S. government buildings, have been sent to the border, the Border Report revealed.
Over the summer, Lukeville became a popular crossing spot for migrants who were guided to open doors in the border wall by smugglers.
The gates were ordered to be welded open by top brass with the Border Patrol– infuriating rank and file agents who could do nothing to stop masses of migrants brazenly walk through the open floodgates into America.
Some 55,224 migrants illegally crossed into the country through the Tucson area in October.
The region remains the busiest in the nations for migrant encounters, according the federal government.