Gila Bend, Arizona, Mayor Chris Riggs declared a state of emergency Tuesday in response to the ongoing situation at the southern border.
Riggs said during a Fox Business interview that Gila Bend lacks the resources to handle the number of people coming into the town, and that the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbates the difficulties. The mayor said that Border Patrol regularly busses migrants to his town with no access to basic necessities like food and shelter and that his local government has received no federal or state funding to provide aid to those individuals, according to Fox Business.
Riggs emphasized that Gila Bend, which has a population of roughly 2,000 people, is not properly equipped to handle any sort of influx, and that he questions why his town is being chosen for people seeking some kind of refuge, Fox Business reported.
“We really [don’t] understand,” the mayor said on Fox Business, “because we have nothing here. We have no charity organizations that can help, no non-governmental organizations that a lot of the larger cities and towns do have to assist these people.” (RELATED: Biden Needs To Acknowledge His ‘Inhumane Border Crisis,’ Republicans Say)
TOPSHOT – A group of about 30 Brazilian migrants, who had just crossed the border, sit on the ground near US Border Patrol agents, on the property of Jeff Allen, who used to run a brick factory near Mt. Christo Rey on the US-Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico on March 20, 2019. (Photo credit should read PAUL RATJE/AFP via Getty Images)
Riggs estimated that, if two busloads of people were sent to Gila Bend each week, it would cost roughly $600,000 over a year to get everyone tested for COVID-19. This comes as only 16.7% of the U.S. adult population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The number of migrants attempting to enter the United States has sharply increased in recent months. The U.S. encountered over 100,000 individuals attempting to cross the border in February.