Number of people seeking asylum continues to grow

Groups of families continue to seek asylum in the United States and dozens of them are in Yuma County.

Just miles away in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, there was a line of about three dozen people seeking asylum Wednesday afternoon.

Many of those were children.

That is not including the dozens of asylum seekers that Immigration and Customs Enforcement released into Yuma County last week.

Those seeking asylum are from states in southern Mexico, like Chiapas and Michoacán.

They added that they are trying to escape the crime and corruption that is tied to the drug cartels.

Although these families are from Mexico, Yuma Sector Border Patrol said they are seeing more and more immigrants entering the United States from other countries.

“The majority of individuals that we see crossing illegally in the Yuma sector are coming from countries that are other than Mexico. Interesting to note that for the first 15 days of October for fiscal year 2019, there was a 200 percent increase in other than Mexican nationals that are crossing here in Yuma sector compared to the fiscal year 2017,” said Jose Enriquez with CBP.

Border Patrol arrested 12,847 undocumented immigrants in the Yuma sector in the fiscal year 2017 and about 10,000 were not originally from Mexico.

Last week hundreds of undocumented immigrants seeking asylum were released into Arizona communities after being released from detention centers.

News 11 has continued reaching out to Teresa Cavendish with Catholic Community Services to get their side of the story, but we have not heard back from her yet.

Cavendish did tell the Arizona Republic that 200 immigrants were released into the Yuma area, but did not say where they are currently being housed.