PHOENIX — Shortly after 11 a.m. Thursday, a charter bus, paid for by the State of Arizona, pulled into a Phoenix church parking lot, dropping off more than a dozen migrant families from Guatemala, Ecuador and Columbia.
They sought asylum in Naco, a tiny border town in southeast Arizona.
"Right now we're seeing people from every continent except Australia," said pastor Angel Campos.
Since 2019, pastor Campos' church has been a stop along the way for migrants entering the U.S. en route to their ultimate destination.
The Department of Homeland Security says the number of migrant encounters since the end of the COVID-related border restriction policy known as Title 42 is down 50% across the Southwest border.
Pastor Campos, however, is not seeing it. "Maybe they're zipping up all the entrances from all the border with Mexico," Campos said, "but right here in Arizona it's not like that. Right here in Arizona, I think we're getting more."
In Yuma, officials are seeing between 400-600 migrants a day. They are making asylum claims.
In most cases, the migrants are paroled into the U.S. where they will be expected to appear at an immigration hearing that could be years into the future.
"We left Cuba on Christmas Day," Arianna, with her daughter by her side, told pastor Campos in a video Wednesday.
Arianna and her daughter have been attempting to legally enter the U.S. from Cuba to reunite with her husband who is living legally in Arizona.
They were denied three times, twice in January and once in February. But on May 14th, under Title 8, their fortunes changed. "He's on his way to see us. It's been four-and-a-half years since I've seen him," Arianna said.
Over the years, pastor Campos and his church have assisted thousands of migrants. Most stay at his church one day, maybe two. On Wednesday, after just two hours, the pastor watched as Arianna and her daughter reunited with the man they love.
