Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls said that border crossings near his city have continued to decline since President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border on Jan. 20.
“For the last four days—very specifically in the last four days—we haven’t had any transfers from the San Diego or Tucson sector, which had been happening daily or near daily for the last several months,” Nicholls told The Epoch Times on Jan. 24.
“There’s some definite changes along the flow of traffic, at least in the Yuma sector.”
Nicholls said some illegal immigrants have chosen to “self-deport” rather than be put through the federal immigration system.
“Quite a few of them are actually being repatriated to their home countries,” he said, “which is why you’re seeing the reduction in numbers, because people don’t want to make the investment just to be sent back home.”
Trump Border Czar @RealTomHoman: "There's going to be a warning coming out, about 10 days from now, where we're going to...give illegal aliens the right to self-deport so they don't get a bar placed onto them," which would prevent any attempt to LEGALLY return for 5-20 years. pic.twitter.com/4YUXPwYOpH
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) February 6, 2025
Nicholls said that the official stance is that most border crossings are related to human smuggling and trafficking, with considerable involvement from Mexico’s drug cartels.
Illegal immigrants pay cartels and smuggling organizations to cross the U.S.—Mexico border; it can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $40,000 depending on the nationality of the border crosser and the destination city. Many illegal immigrants enter the United States in debt to cartels, and spend years in indentured servitude to pay it off.
Trump took multiple border-related executive actions on Jan. 20 after being sworn in, including to kick-start the deportation of criminals and other illegal immigrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents quickly began detaining and deporting many known criminal illegal immigrants in major metropolitan areas, including Chicago and Denver.
Nicholls said he supports the plan to deport known criminals. “I don’t know anybody who’s in favor of keeping them here. So I don’t think that that’s really caused any sort of controversy,” he said.
Cost to Local Industries
Nicholls also noted that Yuma’s health care and agricultural sectors have faced financial challenges due to illegal border crossings. One local hospital has incurred an estimated $26 million in costs for illegal immigrant care, which has yet to be reimbursed.
“From a city perspective, we’ve done a pretty good job of isolating costs and not really impacting our budget,” Nicholls said.
“As a community, because of the great work of our Border Patrol and local nonprofits, we’ve only had a couple days in the last four years where migrants were released out in large numbers to the community. We’ve been able to help mitigate those impacts without dramatic costs.”
However, Nicholls said that farming operations along the border in Yuma have suffered a blow with all the illegal border crossings in recent years.
Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2022 apprehended more than 25,000 illegal immigrants in the Yuma sector, the vast majority of whom crossed the border in an area right next to lettuce farms.
In December 2022, the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, along with Mayor Nicholls, declared countywide states of emergency due to the large number of illegal immigrants gathering on the U.S. side of the border.
The mayor’s proclamation has been in effect since that time.
In September 2023, Yuma County Commissioner Jonathan Lines testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security about the financial implications of an unrestricted border on Yuma’s $4 billion agricultural industry.
“The surge in illegal immigration has had a devastating effect on this critical industry in Arizona,” Lines told the subcommittee.
“The people crossing illegally travel on foot and urinate and defecate in fields and irrigation canals of the farms after they cross the border, which ruins whatever crop is growing on that particular farm.
“Farmers must abide by stringent food safety rules and this trespass and defecating in production areas renders the crops grown completely unmarketable, thus the crop is destroyed, and farmers must bear this staggering loss.
“As a result, farmers in Yuma have had to invest millions since [the Biden administration] took office in crop loss, to hire security and build fences around their farms to protect our nation’s food supply,” Lines testified.
Nicholls said that the window for lettuce from farm to market is very narrow, and consistency is essential because of the short shelf life of produce.
“You need people there when you need people there,” he said. “The 50,000 [migrant] workforce that’s required for winter harvest here is really focused on legal, consistent labor.”
Nicholls said that over the past four years, most illegal immigrants crossing into the Yuma area have wanted to be apprehended by Border Patrol. By doing so, they aimed to enter the system and obtain “some sort of status,” he said.
Nicholls said that city officials have not received any official information regarding troop deployments in the Yuma sector.
“What I’m tracking is a perception impact—where people assume our cities are in chaos. They’re not,” he said. “We’ve seen some negative pushback in that regard for tourism, for job attraction, those kind of things.”
Border Town Issues Order
Three hundred and fifty miles east of Yuma lies another border town: Douglas, Arizona, with a population of about 15,600.
On Jan. 27, Douglas Mayor Jose Grijalva signed an emergency proclamation to prepare for the financial impact of the president’s declaration of a national emergency at the border and the deployment of military troops.
“With the closing of the southern border, the city of Douglas will see a decrease in revenue sources from sales taxes, tourism, and other areas of commerce,” the proclamation states.
The proclamation didn’t mention that the Douglas Port of Entry remains open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for legal entry into the United States for commercial traffic, non-commercial traffic, and pedestrians.
The statement suggests that the city will experience an increase in costs to assist federal agencies in implementing the president’s executive order.
The proclamation states that although there is currently “no immediate invasion of narcotics and crime within the City of Douglas, I find it necessary and prudent to prepare for the influx of military personnel to the southern border, to take every lawful precaution available in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of of Douglas’s citizens.”
The city pledges to cooperate with county, state, and federal officials to “protect our borders from illegal entry while protecting our economy.”
On Jan. 22, the defense department announced the deployment of 1,500 active-duty service members, along with additional air and intelligence assets, to the southern border to assist troops already conducting enforcement operations in the region.
The announcement was made approximately 36 hours after Trump signed an executive order instructing the Pentagon to respond to the crisis at the border.
New State Law
Communities are also preparing for the effects of Arizona’s Proposition 314, which was approved by 65 percent of voters in the November election.
This measure makes it a state crime for noncitizens to enter Arizona from any location other than a port of entry, which allows state and local police to make arrests.
The measure also allows Arizona state judges to order deportations.
State agencies must check an individual’s immigration status via the E-Verify program before allowing enrollment in financial aid programs or public welfare. It’s a crime to submit false information to evade the E-Verify program.
Under the proposition, it’s a Class 2 felony if a person knowingly sells fentanyl and it results in the death of another person.
The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office is currently awaiting further guidance from the county attorney, who is working with relevant parties to establish policies and procedures for sheriffs concerning Proposition 314.
Remote Desert Town
In the desert town of Ajo, Arizona, located 43 miles from the state’s 372-mile-long southern border with Mexico, life tends to move at a slower step.
However, resident Charlie Wolfe believes it is only a matter of time before the impact of the new administration’s border policies become apparent.
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