PHOENIX — While much of the country is focused on the flood of Haitian immigrants trying to cross into the United States at Del Rio, Texas, the situation along the border in Arizona is not much better.
Over the weekend the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended 2,400 migrants trying to enter the U.S. near Yuma.
“This is beyond a border crisis. It’s a catastrophe,” Governor Doug Ducey told nationally syndicated talk show host Hugh Hewitt.
Ducey is one of 26 Republican governors who signed a letter asking for a White House meeting with President Biden to deal with the immigration crisis. Last month the Pew Research Center reported illegal border crossings are at a 21 year high.
“We want to go to Washington D.C. and bring back the policies of the previous administration that were actually working at the border,” Ducey said.
Those policies include resuming construction of the border wall and keeping out immigrants who pose health risks.
The governor accused the Biden Administration of a complete lack of action. “You hear the Mexican president call Joe Biden the migrant president. You hear the Guatemalan president saying Joe Biden’s messaging is confusing and you wonder why the Haitian people come here. They think they’re welcome,” Ducey said. “They’re absent without leave at what is happening at the border.”
The governor’s office says the White House has not responded to the request for a meeting.
Ducey previously invited the Vice President and the Secretary of Homeland Security to visit Arizona. So far neither has accepted the offer.
