Arizona leaders meet virtually to discuss emergency funding for border
KYMA
By Luis Lopex
As the crisis at the border continues, U.S. Senators Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema (both D-AZ) are pushing for more money to tackle the crisis.
They’re both part of an effort to bring millions of dollars in emergency funding and some could be coming to our area.
Sen. Sinema held a virtual round table Wednesday with those dealing with the crisis.
Among them was Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls along with Yuma County supervisors Lynne Pancrazi and Martin Porchas.
Customs and Border Patrol, along with ICE and non-governmental organizations were also on the call.
The meeting comes as a government funding bill was released earlier. If passed it would bring $150 million dollars in emergency funding to deal with the crisis.
The money would go to border communities like Yuma and organizations assisting immigrants as they’re processed.
Sen. Sinema praised the NGOs helping with the crisis in a meeting after the round table with reporters.
“Arizona’s NGOs in Yuma and Tucson and Phoenix are providing important work to help ensure that migrants are treated fairly and humanely and that they are protecting our communities at the same time,” Sinema said.
The money will also help out CBP who Sinema says is processing over 1000 immigrants a day.
“We do not have the person-power to do that work and so our CBP officers are stretched incredibly thin at our ports of entry, and so that’s the big challenge they’re facing,” Sinema said.
Sinema’s team tells us they expect the funding to be passed within the next couple of days.
As of right now, it’s unknown how much of the money will be coming locally.