AZ mayor on border chaos, declares emergency: 'Epicenter of a humanitarian crisis’
Mayor of Yuma, Arizona Douglas Nicholls discusses the recent surge in migrants crossing the Yuma border.
Yuma, AZ Mayor Douglas Nicholls appeared on "Fox & Friends Weekend" Sunday, explaining he declared a local emergency to avoid being the "epicenter of a humanitarian crisis" after 6,000 illegal migrants crossed the border into his hometown over a four-day period.
DOUGLAS NICHOLLS: We're currently in some unprecedented waters here. Up to this point, this last year, we had a very contained situation. Border Patrol and ICE were able to work with some nonprofits and bring people through the system without really a whole lot of impact to the community. Well, last weekend we had about 6,000 people come over a four-day period, which overwhelmed the Border Patrol system, and so people were waiting at the border for Border to pick them up for almost a day, day and a half. And so they just started walking through town and doing what they need to do, take care of humanitarian issues, water, food, shelter on their way to try to find a Border Patrol station. So that really caused the community a little bit of chaos. But really, what the purpose of the of the declaration is to make sure we're not the epicenter of a humanitarian crisis that could be quickly developing.
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