Good evening everyone.
Thanks for joining us on Mark
Curtis coming to you live tonigt
from a gap in the border fencing
near the US Mexico border.
We're in Yuma, AZ.
Our cameras were rolling today s
dozens and then hundreds walkedo
this makeshift border checkpoint
today to try to gain asylum.
The area has long been a weak
point that cartels and human
smugglers have been able to exp.
But in the last few weeks,
local agencies tell us the numbf
people crossing here is surging again,
all because of the end of a
federal policy you've heard abo.
We've talked about it Title 42,
now just hours away from expiri.
That's the public health policyt
was used to justify quick expuls
and migrants being turned away
at the border since the beginnig
of the pandemic back in 2020.
Tonight we're taking an indepth look and
bringing you this border crisis first hand.
And the backlog of people who
are trying to cross into the US
across this southwest border,
we have team coverage tonight.
So let's begin along another border town,
Nogales.
And I want to introduce all of u
to the newest member of our tea,
Allison Rodriguez,
who's joining the Today in Ariz.
Team Allison,
great to see you and you've been
in Nogales for the last few day.
What are you seeing there?
So Mark, I have to tell you
that we've been in Nogales.
We've also been West of here
in Sassafee, Arizona as well.
And the tone from people who live in these
communities is it's business as usual.
But I want to step out and showu
the difference because I think the spot
really illustrates the difference in size,
the disparity between Nogales,
Mexico and Nogales, AZ.
And this shows you Border Patrol telling me.
They know they're up against a lot here
when dealing with the other sidf
the wall and what's happening t.
They say it isn't lost on them,
the task that they have patrolling this wall.
And also it's not lost on those
who are giving aid to those makg
this treacherous journey.
And I want to tell you,
the people you're going to meet
in this story tonight,
they did give us permission
to share their story.
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
That's what Hector Sanchez says drove
him and his group to travel from central
Mexico to the border in Nogales.
They killed my cousin, They
kicked us out of our house.
We don't have anywhere to return to and
we can't go back.
Sylvia Sotelo says criminals kidnapped
her 14 year old daughter and whn
she got her back she discovered
someone had sexually assaulted .
They trained me that if I
taught they will come for us.
So I quiet down
and I didn't say anything,
but now my daughter is pregnant.
And so we had to leave.
They decided now would be the
time to cross before Title 42
officially ended Thursday night.
Then this is better in despair.
That's what encouraged us to do this.
It was the last alternative
from what we were hearing on the
news that it's going to get more
complicated after.
It's just one of the many encous
Border Patrol is going to have today.
This is one of the busiest gapsn
the wall for the Nogales statio,
and most of the groups will cros
right here and present themselvo
officials waiting on the other .
But other gaps along the wall are busy, too.
In Sassabe, Arizona, just West of Nogales,
we rode with humanitarian aid
worker GAIL Kotzerek Wednesday,
who drives up and down the wall,
giving or leaving life,
saving water for people
crossing Somo Samaritanos.
She's yelling to a scout on the Mexico side,
checking for when the coast is clear.
Her group, Tucson Samaritans,
works to make sure people crossg
have food or water.
They know the desert is unforgig
and that the migrants or asylum seekers
are not told the truth about it.
They get lied to constantly.
They don't have a clue.
Gail's group isn't the only one watching,
as we saw one group walking
along the border fence.
A watch group stopped and approached them.
Border Patrol Agent Robert
Ortiz says these groups are
not affiliated with the agency.
This is open to any U.S.
citizen, right? So anybody wanto
come is either for service land,
state lunch at state trust land,
city land, so anybody can go up there.
The agents have a tough job mang
the crossers and keeping up wite
changing tactics to try and slip through.
Now it's going to be like 2 over there,
two right here. Two over there,
they're going to wait to see
which one I respond to and then
they're going to go that deal.
So the the the game has changed a little bit.
It's a cat and mouse game that s
only getting more complicated nw
that Title 42 is coming to an e.
I also want to mention a couplef
the people we spoke to said they
did try to go through the C BP1
app to make their appointments,
but they said it either took too long,
it was going to take about 20 to 30 days
or they just couldn't navigate the app.
And so they said they felt this
was their only option. Mark
Allison, you mentioned
Border Patrol in your story.
Hats off to Border Patrol in
every Border State, Arizona.
California and Texas.
But they can only do so much.
They're overwhelmed.
And I'm wondering what's the
situation in the town of Nogale?
How overwhelmed are the
processing centers there?
You know they're very busy hered
I'm told the detention centers ,
the gentleman I was speaking wi,
he said he didn't have specific numbers
and he couldn't tell me if it was full.
But he said he knows it has been much
busier over the last few weeks d
it has been over the last few y.
Allison, it's great to have you
as part of the 12 news team.
We're we're so glad you're going to be
joining us starting Monday morning on today.
And AZ, thanks for joining us and we'll.
Have more of your coverage comig
up later on tonight from Nogale.
I want to bring in the mayor rit
now of Yuma. Doug Nichols. Mr.
Mayor, thank you for joining us.
You've known this was coming foa
long time as we stand here just hours
before the expiration of Title .
Is it about what you thought it
would be or is it worse? Well,
I guess I'm optimistic person ad
I expected to have more resourc.
I expected to have more attentin
and more ability to manage this
situation from the federal leve.
Than we've had.
The numbers are probably I don't
know if they were expect but I'm
not surprised by the numbers. Yu
had a press conference today and
you announced that at this point
because you're at capacity 140
something migrants will be rele.
Where do you stand right now with that?
Well we're working hard to try o
facilitate them and not have thm
released to the streets tomorro.
We currently don't have a
hard plan in place but it's
what we're working on tonight.
This is not something that just
stops at 5:00 o'clock so.
We got people working on it nowd
and working with partners in Phx
and in Tucson and here locally
because just releasing migrants
into the streets is not a
sustainable idea for America, it
Not? Not for American,
particularly not for Yuma.
We have very few commercial
transportation opportunities.
We've got a couple buses that c,
they've already got people on t.
So there's they're not empty.
You know, we've got three or
four flights a day out of Yuma.
They're usually pretty full.
So to to move 140 people,
it's not necessarily readily available
and it'd be okay if it was one ,
but we're looking at day after day after
day and those numbers probably growing.
Earlier today, Homeland Secretay
Mayorkas said this is going to
be a slow and painful process,
slow from his vantage point in Washington,
but from where you sit in the mayor's
office and for all of the peopln
Arizona and the other border states, it's.
A slow and painful process for them as
well with long lasting repercussions.
What do you say to the people of Yuma?
Well, I think it's the patience,
the support, those are the thine
need currently need really frome
local perspective, people are ry
understanding in this community,
but we're just about done with .
This is over 2 years of back and forth
on how can this be managed bett.
And so today, I also issued a lr
to the president on the behalf of the
people of Yuma to demand a natil
proclamation of emergency so wen
get the resources that would try
have an impact and not just kind
of have an impact on the situat.
You
feel like Washington has
turned its back on you
to a degree it has.
Then there's a huge need.
The numbers support it.
It's not me making up an emerge.
The numbers are clear that
we're in emergency mode.