Yuma mayor’s testimony on immigration underway
Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls testified on Capital Hill in front of the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on the Budget about immigration Wednesday.
Mayor Nicholls weighed in on the crisis along the southern border. He called it the ” most pressing ” situation we have at this time.
” When the crisis began in March, I brought together all the non-profits to see how we could put together a temporary 200-bed shelter system, in order to address the humanitarian concerns of the migrant families being released and also address the public safety concerns with the ocmmunity , ” explained Mayor Nicholls.
He went on to address capacity being reached a total of four times. He added that 5,146 people have come through the temporary shelter.
“This is completely unsustainable,” said Mayor Nicholls.
The Yuma-native explained that $700,000 has been spent by the NGO’s assisting with humanitarian aid.
He detailed to the committee members that 1300 migrants have been to the local hospital racking up $800,000 in medical fees. He explained that the government only reimburses about one-third of those costs.
He also highlighted the positive impacts your city experiences from legal immigration and the benefit of cross border spending on the local economy.
” Our economy is definitely based upon that international relationship, ” said Mayor Nicholls.
The Mayor offered a story about his father-in-law, who he met 30 years ago who came to the United States when he was 18, started a small business and raised a family.
“Really the true American dream,” said Mayor Nicholls. ” He’s become a real hero to me in a lot of way. He helped me start my own engineering firm. This is really a very personal, very real thing for us. This is not an unusual story. This is 60 percent of our community is Hispanic. ”
Before addressing the U.S. House of Representative’s Committee on the Budget he said this on his social media pages.
” As Mayor, I’ve made every effort to urge for federal action. Local, state, federal officials and partners have joined in to try to help, ” wrote Mayor Nicholls.
You can watch the entire hearing below:
