Yuma Mayor: Biden’s Planned Border Visit the Result of Political Pressure from Dems

(CNSNews.com) – President Biden did an about-face on Wednesday telling reporters in Hebron, Ky., that he intends to visit the border next week when he attends the North American Leaders Summit.

This comes after the White House has repeatedly said that Biden didn’t need to visit the border as president, because he had already done so as a senator, despite record numbers of migrants illegally crossing the border.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration is forcing Arizona officials to remove shipping containers being used as a border wall to stop migrants from entering.

Yuma, Arizona Mayor Douglas Nicholls said the decision to remove the shipping containers “is not such great news for us.”

“We really need to have that protection, and it is really not about people crossing as it is on how they cross and where they cross,” the mayor said.

“Preventing people from crossing is probably a different action that needs to happen by the federal government, but these containers really made sure that the traffic coming through was focused in areas where border patrol can be effective in picking up, and protecting property, and protecting people’s homes who lived on the border for generations,” Nicholls said.

He said that Arizona residents are paying for the $75 million it takes to remove the shipping containers.

“It’s the residents of Arizona who paid that bill. That is really, again, a shift of what should be happening. These are federal issues. The federal government needs to be taking care of it, not the taxpayers of Arizona or the citizens of Yuma. So those are the things we have been focusing on, really, is how does that– those federal decisions or lack of decisions impact the local community, and who carries that impact,” Nicholls said.

When asked what the community is saying about it, the mayor said, “They are very frustrated, because this has been a very protracted period of time. Even if you compare numbers from 2020-2021, there is still a very dramatic increase. So this is a historic level of activity that really puts our community at risk and it puts our country at risk.”

When asked about the president’s decision to visit the border, Nicholls said, “I think it really has to be about the shift politically in this country. He saw in the midterm elections where even some very central Democrats were talking about the border and what it means to our nation. 

“So I think that message has gotten through to the president, and I guess I can only assume that he wants to try to make sure he’s on top of that issue, riding into the election in the next two years,” he said.

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