Self-Deportations and Plummeting Crossings–How New Border Policies Impact Arizona
In Yuma, lettuce farmers have suffered millions worth of damaged crops in the past four years due to illegal immigrant crossings.
By Allan Stein
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February 05, 2025Updated:February 05, 2025
YUMA, Ariz.—Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls said that border crossings near his city have continued to decline since President Trump declared a national emergency at the southern border on Jan. 20.
“For the last four days—very specifically in the last four days—we haven’t had any transfers from the San Diego or Tucson sector, which had been happening daily or near daily for the last several months,” Nicholls told The Epoch Times on Jan. 24.
“There’s some definite changes along the flow of traffic, at least in the Yuma sector.”
Nicholls said some illegal immigrants have chosen to “self-deport” rather than be put through the federal immigration system.
“Quite a few of them are actually being repatriated to their home countries,” he said, “which is why you’re seeing the reduction in numbers, because people don’t want to make the investment just to be sent back home.”
Nicholls said that the official stance is that most border crossings are related to human smuggling and trafficking, with considerable involvement from Mexico’s drug cartels.
Illegal immigrants pay cartels and smuggling organizations to cross the U.S.—Mexico border; it can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $40,000 depending on the nationality of the border crosser and the destination city. Many illegal immigrants enter the United States in debt to cartels, and spend years in indentured servitude to pay it off.
Trump took multiple border-related executive actions on Jan. 20 after being sworn in, including to kick-start the deportation of criminals and other illegal immigrants.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents quickly began detaining and deporting many known criminal illegal immigrants in major metropolitan areas, including Chicago and Denver.
Nicholls said he supports the plan to deport known criminals. “I don’t know anybody who’s in favor of keeping them here. So I don’t think that that’s really caused any sort of controversy,” he said.
Cost to Local Industries
Nicholls also noted that Yuma’s health care and agricultural sectors have faced financial challenges due to illegal border crossings. One local hospital has incurred an estimated $26 million in costs for illegal immigrant care, which has yet to be reimbursed.
“From a city perspective, we’ve done a pretty good job of isolating costs and not really impacting our budget,” Nicholls said.
“As a community, because of the great work of our Border Patrol and local nonprofits, we’ve only had a couple days in the last four years where migrants were released out in large numbers to the community. We’ve been able to help mitigate those impacts without dramatic costs.”
However, Nicholls said that farming operations along the border in Yuma have suffered a blow with all the illegal border crossings in recent years.

Border Patrol agents in fiscal year 2022 apprehended more than 25,000 illegal immigrants in the Yuma sector, the vast majority of whom crossed the border in an area right next to lettuce farms.
In December 2022, the Yuma County Board of Supervisors, along with Mayor Nicholls, declared countywide states of emergency due to the large number of illegal immigrants gathering on the U.S. side of the border.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/...s-4-special-report-3