Arizona border town mayor: Dropping off migrants with unchecked health & criminal history 'like opening Pandora's box'

RT
Fri, 19 Mar 2021 16:57 UTC

© Reuters / Adrees Latif

A US Border Patrol agent instructs asylum-seeking migrants as they line up along the border wall after crossing the Rio Grande river into the United States from Mexico on a raft, in Penitas, Texas, US, March 17, 2021

The mayor of a small border town in Arizona has told RT that federal agents did not provide crucial information about the migrants that are being released in the US after the White House relaxed border policies.

"The number of migrants that come across on foot has ramped up substantially in just the last few weeks," Chris Riggs, the mayor of Gila Bend, an Arizona border town of 2,000, told RT.

Mayor Riggs said he began worrying after the town was notified that border control officials will be releasing migrants in the local community after processing them quickly. At the same time, federal agencies did not provide enough information about the expected arrivals, he said.

Riggs is mostly concerned that people dropped off by border agents might slip past the process of being vetted for criminal history, or might not get checked for the coronavirus and other diseases, which can then spread "through a small community like wildfire."

"I have a large number of seniors and elders. We're hoping that Border Patrol will start testing before they release people," Riggs said.

We want to see what their health records are so we can ensure that our citizens are protected. We have asked for that documentation, [and] we are yet to be provided with any documentation. Until we start seeing that - this is really opening up a Pandora's box in our community.

The mayor further said that the rural town has no resources to host migrants or help them travel to a shelter.

US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said earlier this week that the country is set to see the biggest surge of migrants coming from poor Central American countries through the US southern border in 20 years. Border agents detained some 100,000 people last month.

© Brad Barket/Getty Images for PEOPLE En Espanol

Alejandro Mayorkas has won acclaim from pro-migration groups as he reduced fraud detection projects and maximized migration inflows.

President Joe Biden signed several executive orders aimed at undoing the hardline policies of his predecessor Donald Trump and streamlining the processing of migrants before they can be released from detention facilities.

White House officials, however, were very reluctant to call the situation at the border a 'crisis.' Mayor Riggs disagrees: "No, this is a crisis. As simple as that," he argued, adding that the blame falls on the Biden administration, rather than on Border Patrol.

"They need to do their job. They need to have a plan in place. Obviously, there was no plan," Riggs said.

From the start of his presidency, Biden has promised to build a "fair and humane" immigration system. At the same time, during this week's interview with ABC he tried to discourage people from entering the US. "Don't come," he said. "We're in the process of getting set up, don't leave your town or city or community."

Comment: The number of minors arriving at the southern border of the U.S. is threatening to overwhelm resources:

More than 14,000 migrant children are currently held in US custody, a senior administration official said, insisting there's no "crisis" at the border soon after Biden's press secretary invoked the very same term.

The official said the number of youths detained after attempting to cross the border had soared to 14,000 during a Thursday press briefing, noting that they are divided between facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Border Patrol.

While the official argued that "Children presenting themselves at the border is not a national crisis," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki appeared to contradict that statement during a presser earlier on Thursday, referring to a "crisis on the border." Pressed by reporters, she amended the phrase to "challenges on the border."

Psaki's self-correction is in line with the administration's public stance on the situation at the southern border. In an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos that aired on Tuesday night, Biden sought to downplay the current surge of migration, though reluctantly agreed that it "could be" larger than other spikes seen in recent years. While telling asylum-seekers "don't come over," the president also insisted federal agencies are working as fast as possible to transfer young migrants from border police facilities to "safe" HHS-run holding areas.

However, though Axios reported in late February that some 700 underage migrants were being detained by the Border Patrol, that figure has since soared to around 4,500, the official said. The majority of them, nearly 3,000, have been held beyond the three-day limit set out under federal guidelines, according to CBS News. Another 9,500 are now in HHS custody.

The updated figure comes amid reports that the Biden administration handed down an informal "gag order" for Border Patrol agents, barring them from speaking publicly about the ongoing immigration surge or taking reporters on 'ride-alongs' to witness it for themselves.

Biden also told ABC that adult migrants have not been allowed to enter the country, but the senior official said on Thursday that there are "certain limits" on Mexico's ability to absorb families that are turned away. In some cases, they are accepted into the US so their asylum requests can be heard by a judge, added the official.

Despite the repeated denials of any border crisis, Biden's Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas acknowledged this week that the US is currently "on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years," adding that the conditions there continue to deteriorate. While the president recently said he has no plans to visit the border anytime soon, Mayorkas is expected to make a stop there on Friday, according to ABC News.

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