A House Democrat running for Senate next November has called on President Joe Biden to issue an emergency declaration across the entire southern border, a sign of how unbearable the situation has become for Arizonans.
Phoenix Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) issued a call Thursday for the White House to take legal action that would allow the state and local governments to receive federal funding to cover the money spent on emergency, safety, and public health services for immigrants as they are released into the state from the border.
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“As I’ve said all along, the crisis at our southern border requires a federal response, especially after Title 42 was hastily lifted,” Gallego said in a statement. “An emergency declaration is needed to manage the humanitarian and security needs along Arizona’s border. Our state, especially border communities and local law enforcement, should not be left to respond to this surge alone.”
For several weeks, Arizona’s southeastern region near Tucson has been inundated with immigrants entering illegally. In the week that ended Dec. 7, more than 17,500 immigrants were arrested in the Tucson area, one of the highest weeks ever seen by the Border Patrol.
Many immigrants are released into the United States to await removal proceedings in court, but they are let out of federal custody into towns on the border with nowhere to go, often penniless and unable to speak English. The state and local communities have responded by providing taxpayer-funded bus rides to larger Arizona cities, where nonprofit organizations can help immigrants. But it has come at a high cost.
Gallego said an emergency declaration would give Arizona communities responding to thousands of immigrants released into communities each day the resources to transport, house, feed, and care for people who are destitute.
“Arizona communities will be rushed the resources they need to address the crisis and will be eligible for financial reimbursement. That is why I’m calling on the President to take this necessary step,” Gallego said.
Last week, the state’s Democratic governor, Katie Hobbs, sent Biden a letter in which she requested $512 million in federal funding as reimbursement for what the state had spent responding to the border crisis.
“For far too long, Arizona has continued to bear the burden of federal inaction in managing our southern border,” Hobbs wrote in the letter.
Earlier this year, Congress passed hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to cover expenses in Northern cities that have struggled to deal with hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have shown up in places like New York City and Chicago seeking help from local governments.
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Gallego and other lawmakers, including Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX), have called on Washington to support smaller border towns that have not received any federal reimbursement since the influx of immigrants began in early 2021.
Gallego is running to replace Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) next November. Sinema has not indicated whether she will seek reelection.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the White House for comment.
