YUMA, AZ — In May 2023, as Title 42 was coming to an end, ABC15's Nick Ciletti sat down with Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls to discuss the current state of immigration from his vantage point, what his city needed, and what he said needed to be done. We decided to follow up with him recently to get his take.
"It needs to be done and it needs to be done right now."
That is what Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls said to ABC15 as Title 42 was ending, saying that he wanted the Biden Administration to declare a national emergency, activate the National Guard, and deploy FEMA resources to the southern border - which never happened.
That week, Mayor Nicholls had described the federal response to what was happening at the border was "woefully inadequate," but now that the number of arrests overall at the southern border has plummeted, we wanted to follow up and see what he thought of the situation.
"It hasn't changed in a lot of respects," explains Mayor Nicholls. "The President did have an executive order that did have a positive impact. But it's not solving the problem - and I don't think anyone would say that an executive order could, but it had a positive impact."
Mayor Nicholls also believes that changes in cartel activity, south of the border, may also be influencing the number of people coming over and says other sectors of the U.S. Border Patrol remain very active.
In June, President Joe Biden issued several executive orders, limiting the number of people who can request asylum who have entered the country illegally. It's a plan the White House argues is working.
According to the most recent data from Customs and Border Protection, arrests at the southern border dropped overall, falling to their lowest levels in nearly four years back in July - the first full month of Pres. Biden's executive action.
But Mayor Nicholls believes the White House waited too long.
"I think everyone shares in the blame, but there are different roles. The laws we've had on the books for the last 20-30 years. We have had multiple presidents who have been able to issue executive orders within those same laws that address the issues. This admin took 3.5 years to go down that road and that's what's inadequate."
And what about that bipartisan border security deal the White House supported? It failed twice in the Senate without enough Republican support. Some GOP lawmakers said it didn't go far enough. The White House accused Republicans of putting partisan politics ahead of national security.
"I was disappointed," says Mayor Nicholls after the border deal failed, saying he would have wanted to see more debate on the topic in Congress. "Even if it didn't get approved, it would have advanced the national discussion... For me, it needed more work, but it was going generally in the right direction."
And what about former President Donald Trump's impact on the bill? He reportedly told Republicans in the Senate to vote against it so he could keep immigration as a top campaign issue, but former President Trump has denied opposing the bill, simply for political gain.
Mayor Nicholls says he thinks it's an example of how both Republicans and Democrats at the federal level often play politics.
"I watched it all happen. I think it's politics. Why did he [Biden] wait 3.5 years to issue executive orders that would be effective at some level? That's also politics. It's part of the back-and-forth political game... At the end of the day, it's pretty frustrating that we are part of a pawn. As mayors, we are a little more practical and we want to see progress made.
Mayor Nicholls said he will vote for former President Trump in November, but said no matter who wins the White House, preparations need to happen now to gear up for any possible changes in migration or surges at the border.
ABC15 did reach out to Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign for a response. They mentioned how other mayors in Yuma County, like Somerton Mayor Jerry Anaya and San Luis Mayor Nieves Riedel, have endorsed Harris.
San Luis Mayor Nieves Riedel, a border mayor, sent the following statement on behalf of the Harris campaign:
“Donald Trump and JD Vance killed the strongest border security deal in decades - which was endorsed by the Border Patrol union - because they thought it would help them politically. Vice President Harris is the only candidate who will secure our border by continuing to bring down border crossings, revive the border security bill that was championed by the Biden-Harris administration, and sign it into law.”
