Senator, supervisor talk border, immigration
Porchas, Sinema meet in Washington, d.c.
Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Martin Porchas, chairman of the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, discussed immigration and border issues during a recent meeting in Washington, D.C.
The supervisors had previously agreed to include visas for agricultural workers and immigration reform among the priorities to be discussed with members of Congress during the Feb. 11-14 trip.
According to a press release, Porchas found the senator willing to address the ongoing humanitarian and security crisis at the Southwest border.
“Securing our border while ensuring the safe and humane treatment of migrants remains a top priority for me, Yuma County, and all of Arizona. We’re committed to finding real, lasting solutions that keep Arizonans safe, protect border communities like Yuma, and fix holes in our broken immigration system,” said Sinema, chair of the Border Management Subcommittee.
Sinema noted that she has consistently heard from Yuma farmers and local leaders about the need to reform the “broken” immigration system to better meet the needs of Arizona communities, including workforce shortages for farmers, small businesses and more.
Yuma County supervisors are pressing for an increase in the number of H-2A visas for agriculture workers as well as not having to share the allowed visas with the dairy industry.
The H-2A program allows agricultural employers who anticipate a shortage of domestic laborers to bring temporary foreign workers to perform seasonal labor.
The supervisors are asking for the removal of the cap on three-year visas and sufficient visas for full-time agriculture workers. The county calls the current three-year cap “arbitrary and unnecessary” and notes that splitting the previously proposed 20,000 visas evenly with the
dairy industry further limits the availability of agricultural labor.
However, Porchas told fellow supervisors that it’s been difficult to convince Congress to make changes to the temporary worker visa program although Yuma County is not the only one facing this problem.
“It’s the dairy farmers up in North Carolina, South Carolina, and meat packers. They’re all facing the same issues that we are facing, in a different aspect of farming,” Porchas said at the time. “We’ve been taking this (to Congress) for the last six years, seven years.”
However, Vice Chairman Jonathan Lines pointed out that some congressional members, after visits to Yuma County, now better understand the needs of the local agriculture industry.
The supervisors are also urging Congress to enact comprehensive immigration reform, noting that only the federal government has control over immigration policy.
In a prepared list of federal priorities, the supervisors pointed out that the costs of the federal government’s “failed” immigration policy disproportionately affect all counties along the U.s.-mexico border.
The county noted that the number of asylum seekers and migrants entering Yuma County from Mexico continues to increase, with more than 310,000 apprehensions made by Yuma Sector agents in the fiscal year 2022.
In addition, in 2022, the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office recovered 70 deceased migrants, a record-breaking number, who perished while attempting to cross into the U.S.; responded to 756 emergency calls by migrants who required emergency assistance; and rescued more than 24 underage migrants in remote parts of Yuma County.
County officials also noted that the increased numbers of asylum seekers and migrants “have and will continue to place a severe strain on federal and state resources, nonprofit organizations, and others providing humanitarian and healthcare services.”
Last month, Sinema, an independent, led a bipartisan delegation of U.S. senators to El Paso, Texas, and Yuma to see firsthand the border situation.
During the visit, Sinema held a roundtable discussion with the senators, nonprofits, local law enforcement and local elected leaders, highlighting the challenges presented by the ongoing border crisis. Sinema vowed to continue her work with “solutions-focused colleagues who understand the need to deliver lasting results to solve this challenge.”