YUMA, A.Z. (NewsNation Now) — Yuma Sheriff Leon Wilmot (R) is not far from Mexicali and has seen the influx of migrants at the southern border firsthand.
“Well, currently right now Border Patrol where they were handling roughly 200 plus a day, just along the river corridors, now up to four almost 500 a day in apprehensions just along the River Corridor and Yuma County, we’ve got roughly 115 miles of international boundary here.”
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey deployed up to 250 national guard members to assist Border Patrol in providing medical assistance for migrants and preventing smuggling efforts.
Wilmot says things are still difficult for his department, but the National Guard assistance is helping.
“Our concern for us is not the immigration side of it. It’s the fact that our border security folks are being hamstrung by the cartels coordinating all of this tactically because now we’re seeing an increase in the illegal human and narcotics smuggling towards the eastern remote areas of Yuma County.”
When asked what the country should know about the situation at the border, Wilmot said it’s important to understand how underfunding of certain agencies has lead them to be understaffed for this moment.
“And our thing is, is that we need the citizens to contact their reps and their senators, no matter where you live in the country, and tell them that Homeland Security, border security, public safety and public health has got to be their priority,” said Wilmot. “Not anything else, because we’re still seeing states where the COVID is going up. And for them to allow this to continue when you have countries of origin that have significant COVID exposures coming into the country illegally and that not being addressed, is not putting Americans in their health as a priority.”