Arizona border city releases 190 migrants on to streets as Yuma after Title 42 ends

• The city of Yuma conducted its first street release of immigrants in two years on Friday.
• About 280 migrants were released in the morning and afternoon.
• The mayor appealed for tranquility in the community and said they were not criminals.

Authorities in Yuma, Arizona, released about 300 newly arrived immigrants on Friday, showing how the border city has struggled to cope with a surge in immigration over the past week.

That coincided with the end of Title 42 and the lifting of Trump-era restrictions designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

As a result, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was holding 28,000 migrants in the facility, far exceeding its capacity, according to local officials.

On Thursday, the mayor of Yuma announced that CBP was planning to release immigrants who had not undergone full processing into the city, but claimed they were being “scrutinized.”

On Friday afternoon, three white buses with blackened windows arrived at the Yuma Public Safety Training Facility near the city’s airport.

The location was top secret, but DailyMail.com was there to reveal it. According to the press release, 141 people are scheduled to be released.

People were seen getting off the buses and ushered into shaded waiting areas where they could escape temperatures of at least 96 degrees Fahrenheit.

From there they are known to be put on a bus and taken to Phoenix.

This followed the release of about 140 people in other parts of Yuma and nearby San Luis in the morning as well.

Yuma County Superintendent Jonathan Lines said the process was an acknowledgment of federal officials’ failure to act.

“This is a depressing situation and the federal government is dependent on local and state governments to do their job,” he said.

“It’s yet another failure of the Biden administration to address the problems it created with its open-border policy.”

Earlier in the day, Mayor Douglas Nichols called on Yuma residents to keep calm.

“These people are under scrutiny, at least to the point where Border Patrol will issue notices to submit documents wherever they live in the country,” he said.

“They are supposed to follow up through the judicial process. Unfortunately, that whole process takes three to seven years to complete.”

He claimed that those released were in no danger.

“I ask you, my fellow citizens, to remain calm. No one has been convicted and released with these symptoms,” he said.

There was immediate hope that the crisis might ease on Friday.

After a week of flooded arrivals, the border wall outside Yuma was eerily quiet Friday morning.

The Biden administration had stepped up its message that it had imposed a tough new regime to exclude those not using legal routes of arrival.

Former Yuma District Border Patrol officer Chris Clem said it was too early to celebrate.

“I’m sure the administration is working hard behind the scenes with Mexico. I’m sure they’re doing a lot to address this,” he said.

“And I believe that the will will control things and things will work out.

“So maybe immigrants are trying to figure it out. Do they want to get caught up in the rush? Do they want to wait a few days and see what happens?’

Title 42 was invoked by the Trump administration to stop the spread of COVID-19. This was a public health measure that allowed border officials to expel arrivals before they could apply for asylum.

But it finally expired at midnight ET on Thursday as the pandemic passed.

The Biden administration rushed to implement new restrictions, effectively reinstating President Trump’s “transit curfew,” which allows the deportation of arrivals who did not seek asylum in the destination country.

Migrants can legally report to the border after pre-registering using the CBP One mobile app.

But a legal challenge at the 11th hour blocked plans to release migrants more quickly from border guard custody.

Administration officials also said it was too early to declare victory.

“Overnight we saw a pattern similar to what we have seen over the past few days. We are still encountering large numbers of non-citizens at the border, but we have not seen a significant overnight increase or late-night influx. ‘Blas Nunez Neto, assistant secretary for border and immigration policy at the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters. briefing call.

Images that surfaced after the end of Title 42 shed light on the flood of immigrants wanting to enter the United States following the end of pandemic-era border restrictions.

Migrant camps in the Mexican border town of Matamoros can be seen sprawling two miles in length, despite thousands more crossing the border despite the Biden administration’s changes to the border protocol on Thursday. suggesting that he was trying

In recent weeks, 10,000 people have been stranded every day as migrants rushed to cross the border before the system was changed.

Some have voiced their concerns about the surge, given the limited housing options in some areas.

In upstate New York, dozens of homeless veterans were kicked out of hotels to make room for the influx of immigrants.

A nonprofit veterans’ organization told the New York Post that distressed veterans were only informed earlier in the week that they were making way for immigrants.

On Chicago’s South Shore, residents of a heavily Democratic neighborhood were outraged,Those who overwhelmingly voted for President Biden in the last election spoke out against the hundreds of immigrants being brought into the region.

They said long-term residents were being forced off the waiting list, which many found particularly problematic. Old South Shore High School is used as a detention center for up to 500 immigrants.

“We want to overcompensate people who never lived here before for all these resources that are not coming to us now. You have to!” demanded one woman.

“Many of these migrants are abandoned without plans in place to monitor them and house them long-term,” another resident explained.

While the blame has largely turned on the Biden administration, one reporter in Texas said Senator Ted Cruz after asking what Republicans did to create a viable policy on the US-Mexico border. caused outrage.

An enraged Mr. Cruz accused reporters of shouting “shame” at his question and trying to “parrot back” Democratic points to get statistics.

The sullen exchange rallied other reporters to defend their colleagues, and Mr. Cruz angrily waved them away.

Cruise was in Matamoros, Mexico and neighboring Brownsville, Texas, to witness the unveiling of Title 42.

He held a press conference with border agents and lashed out at the Joe Biden administration for allowing the chaos at the border.