Yuma mayor expecting 1,000 migrant crossings per day after Title 42 ends

PHOENIX — Yuma Mayor Doug Nicholls expects his border town will see about a 1,000 migrant crossings a day after Title 42 ends next month.

Nicholls told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Gaydos and Chad Show on Thursday there’s a pent-up demand for crossings that will be released after the COVID-related border policy that limits asylum-seekers’ entry to the country ends May 11.

“I think it’s going to peak at different times,” Nicholls said.

Nicholls, like U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, hasn’t seen proof the Biden administration has a strong plan to combat the expected surge.

Sinema expects immigration woes to get “categorically worse” once Title 42 ends, concerns she expressed at a subcommittee hearing on the border Wednesday in Washington, D.C., that Nicholls was a part of.

On a state level, Nicholls said he’s been in consistent contact with Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office on plans for Title 42’s end, including working on transportation options once migrants are in the country.

Nicholls’ hope is that Hobbs uses the Arizona National Guard.

“The best thing the governor could do is definitely engage with the National Guard, get more buses to this location and figure out where they can bring people so that they’re not released on the streets of Yuma,” Nicholls said.

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