Almost 300 newly arrived migrants were released by officials in Yuma, Arizona, on Friday illustrating how border cities are struggling to cope with a huge surge in arrivals in the past week.
It coincided with the end of Title 42, and the lifting of a Trump-era restriction designed to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The result was that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had been holding as many as 28,000 migrants at its facilities, far beyond its capacity, according to a local official.
On Thursday, the mayor of Yuma announced that CBP was planning releases in the city of migrants who had not undergone full processing, although he insisted they had been ‘vetted.’
On Friday afternoon, three white buses with blacked out windows pulled into the Yuma Public Safety Training Facility close to the city’s airport.
