CALEXICO — All local residents ultimately wanted one thing from the national spotlight which President Donald Trump’s appearance here Friday brought to the Imperial Valley.
Whether it was of criticism or support, Valleyites knew they wanted their voices heard before the 45th president left from his tour of the nearby international border.
Getting the attention of a president —and, even more so, being a part of the first-ever appearance of a sitting president within the city — was too good to pass up, and, in order to make the biggest noise possible, locals took to forming rallies.
Two rallies in particular—the Unity March and Rally at the Grand Plaza Outlets, and the IV Residents for Trump welcoming rally held outside of Naval Air Facility El Centro — seemed to politically divide the Valley in half.
The welcoming rally praised Trump and drew chants of “Trump 2020,” while the Unity March screamed for a call-to-action on local issues they believed the president needs to focus on.
While they may have had conflicting views, organizers of both events emphasized peacefulness and no disturbances could be seen at either locations.
Without wanting to miss a single moment of the experience, both events began at about 8 a.m., which was hours before President Trump’s estimated 11:40 a.m. arrival.
The Unity March began at the First Street parking lot and collectively ended at the Gran Plaza. Once at the Plaza, a circle formed and those interested in sharing their thoughts took turns doing so over a megaphone.
With the attention of the crowd, former Calexico councilwoman Martiza Hurtado thanked the city for issuing the group the only permit to hold the rally legally
During the march, Calexico police officers temporarily blocked off streets, and Calexico Police Department Chief Gonzalo Gerardo even made a brief appearance as a crowd member at the Plaza.
Hurtado further explained that once she first heard of Trump’s arrival on Sunday afternoon, she “jumped on it immediately.”
“I know that I have to listen to this community so we put this group together, this group of really good friends who have done this kind of activism for a while — and we love it,” Hurtado said.
Signs that read “Build Bridges, Not Walls,” “27.5% Unemployment Rate,” and “We Have The Most Polluted River” continued to be waved in hopes that Trump would see it upon his arrival.
IV Residents for Trump gathered at the intersection of Bennett Road and Evan Hewes Highway in anticipation of welcoming President Trump’s motorcade as it came out of NAFEC.
When lifelong El Centro resident AJ Gaddis heard two days ago that the welcoming rally would be gathering down the street from her home on Evan Hewes Highway, she was quick to jump onboard.
“It’s been a long time since one of our presidents took an interest in coming down to the Imperial Valley,” Gaddis said. “So if he’s taking the time to come down here and to take a look at what our issues are and to check out our border — regardless of the affiliation of which party you are — I think we need to respect the president and welcome him to the Imperial Valley.”
The rally was able to give a shouting welcome as the president’s motorcade zoomed past the intersection.
For Gaddis, a native to the Imperial Valley, the nearly three-hour wait was worth it.
“It was generally a good feeling of support and just coming together as Imperial Valley,” the Valley native said. “This county is not taken seriously sometimes in Sacramento. We don’t’ have the population, so we don’t have the vote, so what happens is we get forgotten and we become a dumping ground.”
Gaddis felt the county isn’t taken seriously sometimes in Sacramento due to its relatively small population.
“So for the president to take an interested in the Imperial Valley — I don’t care, it’s like a once in a lifetime event,” the Valley native said.
Gaddis glanced at her three-year-old granddaughter Georgie and smiled.
“This may not happen again for me, but I’m hoping that it will happen again for her,” she said.
YUMA — The sandy trails leading out of the Colorado River are covered in fresh footprints, some just a few hours old.
Along the larger, adult-sized shoe prints are smaller ones left behind by children. Some were toddlers who recently crossed with their parents into the United States to seek asylum.
The prints belong to some of the 27,000 migrant families and unaccompanied minors that U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Yuma Sector have processed in the first half of the fiscal year, a sector spokesman said.
It’s a dramatic increase, considering that agents in Yuma apprehended a little more than 26,000 migrants total in the entire previous year, according to statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Border Patrol officials showed The Arizona Republic the area along the Colorado River where many of these migrants are crossing, largely unimpeded, in small and large groups.
On a recent morning, agents didn’t spot any migrants. But water levels are so low, that migrants, even children, can easily wade across the river.
Then they walk past the dense brush, under the vehicle barriers made of rail tracks stacked in the shape of X’s, and up to border agents waiting on the other side of the barriers.
.
On Sunday, Border Patrol agents apprehended 400 migrants who had turned themselves in to agents in smaller groups throughout the day around the sector’s 126-mile long border with Mexico.
.
That posed a serious problem for border agents. Sunday’s apprehensions put their processing center in Yuma and the three patrol stations throughout the sector at full capacity.
.
“If holding capacity is a little over 400, and we get one group of 400, you can kind of see how really taxes our agents in the field and in processing,” said Justin Kallinger, the operations officer for the Yuma Sector.
.
Since last week, the Border Patrol has been releasing migrants that it had already processed in Yuma to free up space to process other large groups of migrants that continue arriving at the border.
.
~
.
Migrants released ‘because everyone has now reached their capacity’
.
~
Normally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would take custody of the Border Patrol-processed migrants and either keep them longer in detention or release them in Phoenix or Tucson.
But the Yuma Sector has been at or over capacity for most of the year, as the number of families arriving and turning themselves in to agents has risen.
So why start directly releasing migrants into Yuma now?
“Because everyone has now reached their capacity,” Kallinger said. “It’s not just us, it’s ICE (Enforcement Removal Operations), it’s the other facilities. They’ve reached their capacities.”
With no end in sight to the continue arrival of migrant families to Yuma, Border Patrol said they expect to continue releasing migrant families in the coming weeks, and maybe even months.
Faced with the possibility of a humanitarian emergency, nonprofit organizations in Yuma stepped up, opening a temporary shelter with capacity for up to 200 people. The immediate goal was to avoid having migrants dropped alone in the streets of Yuma.
On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will visit Yuma as part of a three-day border tour. She’s expected to meet with border and immigration officials, as well as the nonprofits helping migrants.
Now that the shelter is up and running, these groups are slowly transitioning and preparing for the long run.
~
Community organizations have mobilized to help the migrants
~
When the Border Patrol informed the Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls about the imminent release of families, he immediately called a meeting with a collection on nonprofit groups known as Community Organizations Active in Disasters, or COAD.
Members include the Salvation Army, the American Red Cross, Community Catholic Services of Southern Arizona and the Yuma Community Food Bank, among others.
The Salvation Army offered up an empty space they had available. In about a day, they worked with the other groups to set up cots, bring in portable showers and bathrooms, and even two mobile kitchens to provide three hot meals a day.
Capt. Jeffrey Breazeale, the Salvation Army’s corps officer in Yuma County and the spokesman for the nonprofits’ response, said it has taken a big, coordinated effort to get the shelter open.
.
And it will take as big an effort to keep it going in the near future.
.
“The biggest fear is running out of money and not being able to help out,” he said. “We’re relying heavily on our local donors, our statewide donors, our national donors, and having that compassion to help sustain this for as long as we possibly can.”
As of Sunday, the shelter has housed about 250 migrants. Shelter volunteers also help the migrants arrange transportation to where relatives who are sponsoring them are living. The families were given a notice to appear in court near those destinations.
Breazeale is not disclosing the location of the shelter and they’re not giving media access, he said, to protect the migrants and volunteers.
~
Organizations worry resources could run out
~
Initially, there was a concern in Yuma that the Border Patrol would begin releasing as many as 200 migrants per day. While it remains a concern for the future, agents so far have dropped off more manageable, smaller groups at several times throughout the day.
But as the releases continue and both Border Patrol and the nonprofits fall into a more familiar routine, there is a concern among some of the other organizations that resources could eventually run out.
“We have anywhere from 400 to 500 clients that come in here on a daily basis,” said Michelle Merkley, the director of operations for the Yuma Community Food Bank. “So now you got the influx of migrants that now need assistance”
The food bank has taken nearly 19,000 pounds of food to the shelter so far, and will continue to do so as needed, she said. The bank also is the reception point for a collection drive for clothing, food and toiletries.
.
“We’re approaching our summer months and that’s our hard time here,” Merkley added. “Our shelves tend to get very bare in the summer, so we’re approaching that right now. So I’m going to start slowly running out of food here.”
In addition to the collection drive at the food bank, Breazeale said they will soon launch an online donation page. Those funds will go directly to the day-to-day operations at the shelter.
~
Transportation challenges for migrants in Yuma who want to go to relatives
~
In October, Immigration and Customs Enforcement released hundreds of families into the streets of Yuma. But at that time, there was no coordinated response.
Immigration officials released them into the care of Catholic Community Services. But after some backlash from local and state officials, the agency decided to transport them to Phoenix and Tucson instead.
.
One of the main concerns they cited for the pushback was that Yuma, with a county population of over 200,000 people, had significantly fewer resources than Phoenix or Tucson. Most importantly, the city had fewer transportation options to get migrants out of the city and heading to their relatives’ destinations.
Those challenges remain unresolved.
Breazeale said they’ve been able to keep migrant families moving, whether by plane, or by train, or — as is more common because of the price and convenience — by Greyhound bus.
But even getting a ticket has been tough at times because immigration officials are also releasing migrants at other major connection points along the bus routes, such as Phoenix and Tucson.
“It congests those locations, so Greyhound doesn’t send a bus to Yuma,” Breazeale said.
~
Border Patrol spending $100,000 a month on humanitarian supplies
~
The Salvation Army and other nonprofit groups said they will continue to help as best as they can.
The Border Patrol said they too are getting much-needed assistance to handle the arrival of large groups of migrants in Yuma.
The agency has been spending about $100,000 a month on humanitarian supplies for migrant families in their custody, such as diapers and baby formula.
Even though it has become the third busiest route for migrant families along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Yuma Sector has the second-lowest number of agents compared to the other nine sectors along the southwestern border.
.
The Border Patrol’s Kallinger said, at some points, up to half of their agents are pulled from enforcement duties to help care for migrants.
But reinforcements have begun to arrive.
Border Patrol said they’ve had a surge of 50 Border Patrol agents from other sectors around the country, as well as about 80 Arizona National Guard troops and 100 Marines assigned to help them.
More controversially, the sector’s deputy chief said 50 customs officers have been pulled from the ports of entry, although it’s unclear which ports, to help care for migrants, as part of a border-wide effort to reassign 750 customs officers.
The move has drawn criticism from business and residents along the border, and even Arizona’s two senators. As a result, wait times have increased at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Old Timer Chronicle I 