BISBEE, Ariz. (KGUN) — Cochise County is seeing fewer migrant street releases after working with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to coordinate releases with the arrival of buses from Pima County.
“I ran into a group of migrants that were dropped off at the Safeway parking lot and that was last week,” Bisbee resident Dick Hannigan said.
Last week CBP began street releases in southern Arizona because of overcrowding. Bisbee Mayor Ken Budge said 200 people were released in Bisbee in six days.
“Minute by minute. Hour by hour. We never know when the text is going to come through, 'oh we’re full in Tucson and we’re not accepting anyone else,' or 'listen, the noon bus didn’t show up so we’re going to bring them to you',” Budge said.
Drop-offs in the Safeway parking lot originated from the Naco station. Budge has since moved the location because drivers were becoming the target of abusive behaviors. The mayor said people would yell at the drivers for dropping people off.
On Monday, Budge, other city officials and volunteers created a temporary shelter for drop offs and migrants to stay overnight.
“It protects the migrants and also keeps them from wandering around our neighborhoods and making people weary of what might be happening,” Budge said.
Hannigan doesn't feel there is a reason to worry. He said it's a natural reaction to want to help.
“We’ve all been migrants at one time, our families back in the day," Hannigan said. "It wasn’t that long ago you know that my Irish immigrants came to New York. And no different from these people.”
Budge said the people being dropped off in Bisbee are families or women with children. The mayor says he knows this shelter is just a temporary fix and is hoping the federal government can become more involved.
“I just want to take care of my residents here so that there’s no interaction and interference that where they have any problem and that we treat the migrants with compassion,” Budge said.
For the last few days, CBP has been scheduling releases when the buses arrive to take them to a resource center, so they don't have to do street releases. But there is always a chance releases could resume.
“They are processing them and as long as the buses show up three to four times a day they just let them walk right out of the station and right onto the bus," Budge said. "Now if the bus doesn’t show or they fill up in Tucson and Phoenix and there’s no place for them to go, then we have to shelter them for a little while.”
Members of the Bisbee community have donated items, including toys and diapers, for the kids who are with their parents in the shelter.
Budge said from the people he's talked to most of them don't know where they are when they arrive and some even have family in the states that they are trying to get to.
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Alexis Ramanjulu is a reporter in Cochise County for KGUN 9. She began her journalism career reporting for the Herald/Review in Sierra Vista, which she also calls home. Share your story ideas with Alexis by emailing alexis.ramanjulu@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook.
