Yuma mayor discusses transportation, volunteers, and TSA amid humanitarian crisis

One month after the mayor of Yuma signed an emergency declaration, following an overwhelming influx of illegal immigrants crossing in through our region, he explained how that trend is only growing and the problem is not stopping.

Mayor Doug Nicholls has now called for more help from volunteers to address the ongoing transportation issue.

“We’re looking for people who can commit, you know, blocks of time to help Catholic Community Services with the intake of people in contacting their host families and then transporting to the airport or bus station or whatever the transportation need is,” said Mayor Nicholls.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is now assisting with the transportation issue, according to Mayor Nicholls. He said the IRC has taken some asylum seekers to Phoenix where they have shelters of their own.

The Department of Homeland Security is also assisting with transportation by sending buses full of those released to other Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement facilities, according to Mayor Nicholls.

Although the trend of immigrants continuing to cross into our region has continued to keep the Salvation Army shelter in business, Nicholls said not one penny has come out of the city of Yuma’s budget to address the humanitarian crisis at our border.

However, he said the Yuma Police Department has used its resources to assist with the humanitarian crisis.

“The Police Department spends a lot of time making sure things are done safely. As far as when the releases are happening, when we had a lot of people at the bus stop near Target, they spent some resources there too. And then some advance time in trying to coordinate a lot of this and being engaged on that level,” explained Mayor Nicholls.

Mayor Nicholls also confirmed the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents will be heading to our region to assist with the humanitarian crisis.

“I don’t have a schedule on that, but we will be seeing some of those TSA agents here to help with the processing and not so much the handling the migrants coming,” said Mayor Nicholls.

He added this will allow Border Patrol agents to get back out in the field.

In the meantime, the mayor is working with 20 other border mayors to push that the Department of Homeland Security does not release large groups into communities smaller than one million people.