How one Arizona city is preparing for a potential influx of migrants

How one Arizona city is preparing for a potential influx¹ of migrants

Transcript²

NPR's A Martinez talks to Regina Romero, mayor of Tucson, about how her city is getting ready to handle the end of sweeping³ pandemic border restrictions⁴ known as Title 42.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

Officials in cities and towns near the southern border are bracing⁵ for a potential influx of migrants as the Biden administration moves to lift the pandemic-era restrictions called Title 42. The rules imposed by the Trump⁶ administration let authorities turn away migrants and asylum⁷-seekers on public health grounds. They're set to end next month. I spoke⁸ with Regina Romero. She's the mayor of Tucson, Ariz., 70 miles north of the U.S. border with Mexico.

REGINA ROMERO: We have seen these surges of people coming through our southern border before. This is not the first time that Tucson and other border communities have to deal with this. We saw this type of surge during the Trump administration, there - during the Obama administration and before. And so here in Tucson, we have a network of government and nonprofits that have worked together to help asylum-seekers on our border. And so we're not new to it. What we are asking the Biden administration is that they have the resources necessary to be able to have these local communities take over, because it costs money to be able to offer a safe place for asylum-seekers to come.

MARTINEZ: The plan is to lift it by the end of next month. Is there enough time to do any of the things you just mentioned?

ROMERO: Yes, there is time. We can do this. We did it throughout the COVID emergency. The city of Tucson and Pima County got together, and we used motels and hotels to make sure that we were separating and not putting people into shelter type of situations.

MARTINEZ: What did you make, Mayor, of the Biden administration not only continuing Title 42 after the Trump administration, but also defending it in court, as it has?

ROMERO: I think that it's important that we move forward by lifting Title 42, upholding our nation's legal obligation and moral duty. And I usually like to compare what is happening now - right? - in a context of people fleeing their countries because - for example, in - our European allies are providing refuge to those fleeing war in Ukraine. I feel that we, as a country, as the United States, are responsible to do the same for those arriving in our southern border.

MARTINEZ: But, Mayor, if lifting it, as you say, is the right thing, why was it the wrong thing? Did it ever make sense considering where we were at the height of the pandemic?

ROMERO: It is - it's a difficult question because, of course, we want to make sure that we keep U.S. residents safe in terms of public health and public safety. But COVID was here, and it got here in - through the air and it got here through different borders. And so I believe that more than using it as a public safety tool, it was used more as a political tool to keep asylum-seekers and immigrants out of this country, specifically those asylum-seekers and immigrants coming through the southern border.

MARTINEZ: Now, you spoke at a conference earlier this year saying that Washington urgently needs immigration reform. You said the major issue facing immigration policy is that it's not based on facts. The conversation in our country is polarized. So, Mayor, what types of facts do you want to get across?

ROMERO: That it is not an invasion, as people would want to characterize what we live through in Arizona and throughout the borderlands. We can no longer give in to the anti-immigrant political gamesmanship by Republicans trying to trivialize the right to seek asylum and the need we have for immigrant labor⁹ in this country. You know, when my parents immigrated¹¹, they immigrated the entire family. It took six months, from start to finish, to immigrate¹⁰, legally, our family. Nowadays, it takes more than 10 years. And right now, that the country sees a shortage of labor, we could easily ease the systems that we have so that people can, as some like to say, get in line and seek their immigration status in a legal manner.

MARTINEZ: That is Regina Romero, mayor of Tucson. Mayor, thank you.

ROMERO: Thank you so much, A.

(SOUNDBITE OF TRISTEZA'S "GOLDEN HILL")

1 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 sweeping   

adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的

参考例句：

• The citizens voted for sweeping reforms.公民投票支持全面的改革。
• Can you hear the wind sweeping through the branches?你能听到风掠过树枝的声音吗？

4 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制

5 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

10 immigrate   

v.（从外国）移来，移居入境

参考例句：

• 10,000 people are expected to immigrate in the next two years.接下来的两年里预计有10，000人会移民至此。
• Only few plants can immigrate to the island.只有很少的植物能够移植到这座岛上。

11 immigrated   

v.移入( immigrate的过去式和过去分词 )；移民

参考例句：

• He immigrated from Ulster in 1848. 他1848年从阿尔斯特移民到这里。 来自辞典例句
• Many Pakistanis have immigrated to Britain. 许多巴基斯坦人移居到了英国。 来自辞典例句