YUMA, Ariz. – Illegal immigrants have flooded Yuma hospitals and prompted some residents who fear for their safety to hire armed security, a Yuma city official told Fox News.
“Two of these families down here actually had to hire private security guards, armed security guards, to keep people out of their yards,” a Yuma County supervisor, Jonathan Lines, told Fox News. “They constantly had people entering their houses, their patios, and they were not very respectful.”
Nearly 1 million of the 4 million migrants who have crossed into the US since President Biden took office traveled through the southern Arizona border, according to Customs and Border Protection. Border Patrol’s Yuma Sector experienced a 171% increase in migrant crossings between 2021 and 2022.
WATCH A YUMA OFFICIAL EXPLAIN HOW THE BORDER CRISIS HAS STRESSED HIS COMMUNITY:
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Thousands of migrants crossed into residential properties and farmland in Yuma, Lines told Fox News. She said they created security problems, depleted resources and damaged crops in the highly agricultural city.
“We had people show up at our … non-governmental organizations, the food bank, the mission asking for help,” Lines said. “We had people go directly to churches for help.”
ARIZONA BORDER MAYOR ASKS BIDEN ADMINISTRATOR TO CHANGE POLICIES THAT ‘FOMENT’ ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
Yuma County Supervisor Jonathan Lines says thousands of immigrants cross into his city weekly.
(Megan Myers/Fox News)
Some residents were unable to receive medical assistance as immigrants overwhelmed the local hospital, Lines said.
“I got calls from people saying, ‘Hey, I had to take my wife to San Diego to deliver a baby,'” Lines told Fox News. “‘I had to take my wife to Phoenix to deliver the baby because there were no more beds at this hospital.'”
Yuma, a farming community, faced threats to its food production when migrants damaged crops while crossing farmland along the southern border.
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WATCH A YUMA OFFICIAL EXPLAIN HOW ARIZONA CONTAINERS LIMIT MIGRANT TRAFFICKING:
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“National security also ties into our food security,” Lines said, noting that Americans depend on the production of Yuma leafy greens.
“We need to give the men and women who don the uniform every day for homeland security the tools they need, both additional manpower and technology so they can do their jobs and keep us safe,” Lines said.
To hear more from Lines about the strain the border crisis has had on the Yuma community, click here.
