TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Local leaders worried about the border situation had a low profile meeting with Federal officials in Tucson Tuesday.
KGUN 9 has been spending a lot of time at the border showing problems there but Tuesday part of the border story was in downtown Tucson at the Tucson Electric Power (TEP) building. There, border community leaders met with the Congressional staffers about those border situations.
In the latest move to cope with a surge of asylum seekers, Customs Border Protection officers closed the Lukeville border crossing and diverted Customs inspectors there to help process migrants.
That left other communities like Nogales worried about extra traffic shifting to their ports, and discouraging cross border shoppers from spending their money in Arizona—especially since ports like Nogales have already seen some of their inspectors shifted to handle the migrant surge.
In Tucson, at the TEP building, leaders from Nogales and Douglas met with staff from Senators Kelly and Sinema, and Congressmen Grijalva, Ciscomani and Gallego.
Jaime Chamberlain chairs the Santa Cruz County Port Authority.
“We want to be fully staffed and fully funded. And I don't know if we're going to get that right now. I think this is a combination of circumstances in Washington, D.C. That ended up affecting us. We ended up being, you know, the meat in the middle of the sandwich and we get sandwiched out when these things happen.”
Chamberlain says border resources are caught up in budget battles on Capitol Hill but he’s encouraged Arizona’s congressional staff is hearing unified border communities stressing border concerns.
Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce Bracker says it’s his nature to be optimistic but he’s worried about what Mexican shoppers and tourists may do if cutting inspectors at the ports makes it too hard to cross.
“Every weekend building up to the holidays is a bigger test for us. The challenge for the challenge for us in the United States or the challenge for us in Arizona. Is that you don't want you don't want your clientele to change their buying habits.”
And there are immediate concerns about money for border issues drying up, with the chance some Federal funds will cut back as soon as the end of this week unless that money’s renewed.
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.