Over 2,700 migrants cross into Yuma over holiday weekend

A bottleneck at the border continues stretching the local processing system thinner than usual - 13 On Your Side's Arlette Yousif Reports

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - Over 2,700 migrants crossed into the Yuma Sector during the holiday weekend alone, with some days seeing as many as 1,000 people at the border.

The Morelos Dam is still a hotspot for large groups crossing into our country over the month of December, causing a bottleneck and stretching the local processing system thinner than usual.

"It’s been a rough month. It’s been a rough year, overall, but this last part of the end of the month… where we had this large influx of migrants coming over, crossing over at the Algodones section has been extremely difficult," says Yuma County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Reyes.

Yuma County Board of Supervisors Chairman Tony Reyes says there is some government help, but it’s not designed to help large groups.

"The federal government has set up processing centers. They do have hotels that service that and they do have their own facilities where they keep most of these people, they keep them in that location. So they’re not walking around the city. They’re not walking around small towns," explains Reyes.

Processing times vary, but each person usually spends about 72 hours with border patrol and another 72 hours with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"Those people, although they come and they don’t come quote, the right way, they’re still people who we need to deal with," says Reyes.

Some migrants travel far and long for the chance to step foot in the United States-- all at the risk of being sent back to the very place they are running from.