Arizona Gov. Ducey speaks to reporters at a news conference held along the border in Douglas on March 19, 2021.
Governor Doug Ducey staged a media event at the U-S/Mexico border in Yuma Wednesday, calling for President Joe Biden to declare a national emergency in response to a surge in immigrant detentions.
"Our border patrol agents are overwhelmed. Citizens here in Yuma are concerned for their safety, and nonprofits left to pick up the pieces of broken federal policies are strained, and yet we still have not received any signs of action from the federal government," Ducey said in a video distributed by his office.
Ducey called the border situation a crisis, and pointed out that the president used the same word. The chart the governor used to illustrate his point showed that apprehensions in the Yuma area since Oct. 1 stood at 11,635, compared to 14,012 people apprehended in fiscal year 2019 under President Trump's leadership.
The American Immigration Council says total apprehensions along Arizona's southern border are less than half of what they were 15 years ago, when Republican George W. Bush was president.
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