NOGALES, AZ — Olga Garcia looks through the border fence in Nogales at her mom who she hasn't seen in ten years.
"Imagine, it's hard," Garcia says about being separated from her family.
She lives in Utah, and says she came to the U.S. with a work visa. She's now applying for citizenship and says if she leaves the U.S. she won't be allowed back in.
"I just want to see my family," Garcia said. "I don't want to talk to them behind this thing."
As Garcia speaks with her family, border apprehension numbers in the Tucson Sector, and border wide have plummeted.
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President Biden signed an executive order limiting asylum access for migrants who cross the border illegally in June.
“Overall we have seen a 55% decrease in migrant encounters," Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Troy Miller said.
Miller visited the Mariposa Port of Entry in Nogales as the 2024 Fiscal Year just ended in September.
The last twelve months broke records on the border. In December, mass crossing groups were overwhelming agents.
“We had times when there were certain sections of the border we just couldn’t patrol," Tucson Sector Chief John Modlin said.
At the time, over 2,000 people were coming across the border illegally a day just in the Tucson Sector. Now Chief Modlin says just over 300 a day are being apprehended, which is much more manageable.
“It gives us more time to do interviews with people after they cross," Modlin said. "To determine if they have mal-intent toward the United States.”
At the nearby Arivaca Fire District, which includes 28 miles of border, there’s frustration this didn’t come sooner.
Chief Tangye Beckham says they’re often responding to migrant 911 calls.
“Last year it was $75,000 for my department," Chief Beckham said. Her budget for the year is just under $500,000.
She adds the district has been unable to get reimbursed for any of the migrant medical calls when migrants are not in CBP custody, as the migrants don't have billable insurance.
Responding to the calls also takes a lot of time, and strains resources for the small staff.
“My own community gets frustrated that I’m going out on these calls," Chief Beckham said. "They’re taxpayers, and what if there’s a call in the district and we’re out.”
Across the border, migrants who risked everything to get to the U.S. find themselves stuck with the new order.
“We have people who have been waiting here for 10 months trying to get an appointment and that’s just not fair," Pedro De Velasco with the Kino Border Initiative said.
He explains since the asylum crackdown, people have been left to ask for an asylum through an app, called CBP One, with not much success.
“It’s not respecting people’s right to access asylum," De Velasco said. "They’re sending people back to danger and possibly death.”
There’s now a push to make the executive order law, to keep border numbers low.
“We continue to manage through litigation, what we need is new laws and regulations," Miller said.
In Fiscal Year 2024, the Tucson Sector led all nine southern border sectors with over 450,000 apprehensions.
