PHOENIX — In 2024 Arizona’s border took center stage, getting visits from Presidential candidates, recording over 250,000 total apprehensions, and seeing the impact of executive action.
The busy year began on January 4, when the Lukeville Port of Entry re-opened after being closed for a month. The port closed in December as record-breaking numbers of illegal border crossers forced CBP to re-allocate resources, pulling port officers off of their regular jobs to help Border Patrol Agents.
Still, illegal border crossings continued.
“We are cold, but we thank god we are in America," Jose Gutierrez Garcia said while waiting to get arrested by Border Patrol agents.
Following the surge, Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema tried to pass a bipartisan border bill. After then-candidate Trump put pressure on Republicans not to vote for it, it failed.
“24 hours after we released the bill, my Republican colleagues changed their minds," Sinema said on the Senate floor.
Then ABC15 spent 48 hours on the border, covering stories from Douglas to Yuma.
In the summer, President Biden walked back a campaign promise issuing an executive order limiting access to asylum for migrants who crossed the border illegally.
“This action will help regain control of our border," Biden said on June 4.
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Crossings dropped soon after, but we were there in Mexico as deportations increased and migrants were barred re-entry into the U.S.
“Credible fear, these people have credible fear, and they were denied that," border volunteer Carolina Pena said. "Which to me, is just cruel.”
In the lead-up to the election, apprehensions reached their lowest level of the Biden Administration.
Both candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump visited the border in Arizona.
Following Trump's election victory, there was outrage from the Border Patrol Union and Republicans as parts for the Arizona border wall appeared for sale online at auction.
“Walls, wheels, you don’t have to reinvent them. They work. But they have to be used hand-in-hand with policies that are effective at the same time," National Border Patrol Council VP Art Del Cueto said.
The sale has been halted for now.
President-elect Trump’s 'border czar' Tom Homan has pledged the deportation effort will begin on day one.
The American Immigration Council estimates over 250,000 undocumented people live in Arizona.
