Migrants from all over the world make their way to Arizona’s southern border

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• Geoff Bennett:

  Migrant crossings on the Arizona-Mexico border have remained high this year. It's where people from all over the world come to enter the U.S.

  Amna Nawaz joins us now from Pima County.

  Amna, what's the situation the Arizona border, where you are?

• Amna Nawaz:

  You know, Geoff, it's interesting.

  For all the focus on Texas when it comes to our immigration conversations, it's actually been Arizona that's had one of the busiest border sections across the country so far this year. Along just this 262 miles of border that's stretched in what's known as the Tucson Sector that we're in right now, Border Patrol here logged some 50,000 apprehensions last year.

  That is up from what they have seen previously as well. And that's, of course, when we say apprehensions, people crossing without authorization between ports of entry. Just last week, in fact, the sector said they logged some 17,000 apprehensions. That's more than 1,700 a day.

  Now, the numbers across the entire stretch of the southern border are down slightly from those record highs we were reporting on at the end of last year. But it's worth noting that even those numbers are still nearly double what they saw about a year ago.

  We're also seeing geographic shifts from hearing from officials and sources here, meaning there are more migrants trying to make more remote and therefore more dangerous crossings. That further stretches resources here, because the U.S. Border Patrol has to deploy more people further afield and often carry out rescue operations to bring those migrants in safely — Geoff.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And you reported yesterday on how diverse the migrant population is in Southern Mexico. You spoke to people from all over the world.

  Is the same true along the U.S. border, the southern U.S. border?

• Amna Nawaz:

  Geoff, I have to tell you never in my life did I think all my language skills would come to play on the U.S. southern border in this way.

  In just the last hour or so, we have been driving around maybe a two-mile stretch of border. I have met people from Bangladesh, from Guinea, from Mauritania, from Guatemala, from Ecuador, from Nepal, from Mali.

  Because I'm able to communicate with them both in Urdu and in French, I was able to get some details. Many of them share horrifying travels of over weeks or months at a time. They have arrived here with nothing but the shirts on their back. All of them share stories about being robbed and assaulted along the way.

  They say Mexican officials in particular took their money, in some cases, took their passports and phones, and they all want to know, what happens next? Where can we go?

  Well, one of the people here to answer those questions is a man named Pastor Randy Mayer. He is with the Good Shepherd United Church of Christ. It's about 90 minutes away from here. He brought us out here because he comes here regularly. Once a week or so, he brings out water. He brings out food.

  He drives this stretch of the border, interacts with the migrants who've arrived and lets them know that Border Patrol is here, they will be able to help them, and then tries to communicate with Border Patrol to come pick people up.

  But he's also shared he's seeing larger and larger groups, yesterday alone groups of 150 or 200 people. It stretches Border Patrol's resources. It stretches his. It's also stretching the local officials in Pima County — Geoff.

• Geoff Bennett:

  And, Amna, this all reflects shifts and increases we have been seeing for months now. Is this, based on your reporting, indicative of what's ahead?

• Amna Nawaz:

  You know, what's interesting is Pastor Mayer said that it wasn't until the last few months they started seeing people from this many countries arriving here in Arizona. That is definitely new.

  And the numbers, as we have seen and have been reporting, have been increasing dramatically. That is certainly new. The big question is whether this is a blip or whether this is indicative of what's to come.

  What we do know is that, despite the drop we have seen over the last couple of months, we're starting to see that tick back up. Spring is ahead. Seasonally, that is when numbers also start to go up. The most worrying thing for people here that we talk to is that the resources to match those needs and support those migrants has also not gone up.

  So there's concern ahead about how to meet what is clearly a growing need without the resources to help them — Geoff.

• Geoff Bennett:

  Amna Nawaz in Pima County, Arizona, tonight along the U.S.-Mexico border.

  Amna, thanks, as always. Great to see you.

• Amna Nawaz:

  Thanks, Geoff.