One month into Biden’s border order: Yuma County nonprofit sees decrease in migrants

SOMERTON, AZ (AZFamily) -- Just one month after President Biden signed an executive order to severely limit asylum requests at the Southern Border, a Yuma County nonprofit is seeing a significant decrease in migrants coming in for services.

The Regional Center for Border Health is a nonprofit that prevents migrant street releases. It helps migrants released from border patrol custody reach their sponsors by bussing them to the airport in Yuma.

Since President Biden’s executive order was enacted, the organization says they’re seeing fewer migrants.

The center would receive 300 to 500 people daily from border patrol agents in Yuma.

Now, about 30 days later, they’re only seeing about 40 to 50 migrants a day.

“Compared to other years with surges of 18 buses a day, today we only have one bus. Sometimes there are no buses, very rarely, but we do have some days with no buses,” said Amanda Aguirre, president and CEO of the Regional Center for Border Health.

Aguirre said they haven’t seen numbers this low since 2021.

“It’s been very slow since the president signed the executive order,” she said.

The policy restricts illegal migrant crossings when there is a high volume at the border and ramps up deportations for those who don’t have a valid asylum claim.

“They have to meet the criteria that they have for asylum. They have to be in danger, they have to be escaping some violence in their own country,” said Aguirre.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, agents removed or returned more than 24,000 people in the first three weeks of Biden’s policy.

Encounters at the Southern border dropped over 40% in that same amount of time.

Aguirre said this change comes with mixed emotions as she hoped for a bipartisan immigration bill to pass.

“Our country needs immigration laws to be reformed. This is not the way to immigrate into a country. There’s a lot of dangers, people dying in the river and desert. We prefer to not have this kind of migration in this form,” she said.

The slowdown has allowed the nonprofit to take a breather. But they’re staying on alert.

“We anticipate there might be another surge soon so that is still on the radar. What we do is prepare for the emergency response,” Aguirre said.

Since 2021, the group has helped process more than 230,000 individuals across the border. In addition to their migrant work and advocacy, the group operates 21 medical clinics in Yuma, La Paz, and Mohave counties.

Aguirre said it’s a part of their mission to increase access to affordable care in rural communities.

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