An Arizona mayor slammed the Biden administration for not providing his city with any documentation on the health status or number of migrants being “dropped off” in the town by the federal government.
“We’re a very economically depressed community. We can barely afford to take care of the people that we have here in our community now,” Gila Bend Mayor Chris Riggs said. “And as of the 2nd [of March], Border Patrol advised us they’re basically going to drop people off here and [say] ‘They’re your problem.’”
Riggs, who is an independent, said so far the administration has left his city “completely in the dark” about the migrants dropped off there, including their health status and how many the city can expect to host.
Riggs also expressed frustration that the situation will cost the city “tens of thousands of dollars a year to be able just to provide them with a bottle of water and a sandwich when they get dropped off.”
The mayor said that the price tag is a result of the lack of communication from the federal government, which leaves him unprepared.
“They’re not able to give us how many. They can’t give us what background[s] these people are. They can’t tell us what their health issues are. I’ve got a lot of seniors and elders here between Gila Bend and San Lucy Village that are very susceptible to COVID,” Riggs said. “We have not seen the [coronavirus] outbreak that other areas have seen in Arizona, yet we’re going to get punished for [the federal government’s] choices.”
The mayor said that repeated attempts for information have gone unanswered by the administration, leaving him frustrated with trying to pick up the pieces of a “crisis they started.”
“We are completely in the dark,” Riggs said. “Give us something. We’re still not getting anything. So I mean, we’re really frustrated with how we’re being treated through a crisis that they started.”
Riggs isn’t the only official in a border state expressing frustration with the new administration’s policies, with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announcing he was deploying the National Guard and law enforcement officials to the border to assist with the crisis.
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The administration has so far been unwilling to acknowledge the situation at the border is a “crisis,” instead insisting that it is a “challenge” that will be overcome as they continue to implement that president’s immigration agenda.
