Local immigrants being taken to Washington D.C. on buses

Similar to what Texas is doing with their immigrant population, people are being sent out to give a break to local resources - 13 On Your Side's Luis Lopez reports

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The first bus departed from Yuma on Monday, with 20 migrants on board, arriving in Washington D.C on Wednesday.

The program is funded with state money.

We obtained pictures and video from a verified source as another bus departed Wednesday with 40 migrants board.

The immigrants getting on are doing so voluntarily, and those who have sponsors on the east coast are taking advantage.

Yuma county supervisor Jonathan Lines is in favor of the new program, saying it's giving local resources a needed break.

“Yuma and our community aren’t necessarily equipped to handle this type of a load,” Lines said.

Lines says this overflow impacts medical services, the 911 dispatch center, and other local charities struggling to keep up.

“You know currently we’re looking at over 1,000 people a day coming into the community and if we didn’t get them out of the community or out of Arizona, someplace else, it would be something that we would be responsible for taking care of,” Lines said.

However, Yuma County board of supervisors chairman Tony Reyes doesn’t see the benefit.

As he believes it’s more of a message to Washington rather than an actual solution.

“All we’re doing is spending more money on a problem we call a federal problem, so we make a point that’s costing us a lot, and then we’re spending the state’s money and sending people to make a point that you’re not taking them, well, that is the dumbest thing I’ve heard so far about solving this kind of problem,” Reyes said.

Meanwhile, illegal crossing numbers remain high with over 150,000 immigrants processed since last October.

With most in the yuma sector allowed to stay in our country under Title 8, and able to seek asylum.