border patrol

Yuma Mayor Douglas Nicholls has declared a state of emergency to deal with the number of families being released from Border Patrol custody into the city.

Government officials and non-governmental organizations that help immigrants must do a better job coordinating and communicating about the needs of immigrants in the country illegally who are increasingly being released onto the streets after their detentions, Sen. Martha McSally said Monday.

Firearms use by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and agents is declining, and less-lethal force is also down, according to data obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. The decrease comes as fewer people are crossing the border illegally and after the agency overhauled how force should be deployed at the border.

A group of 376 Central Americans was arrested in southwest Arizona, the vast majority of them families who used short, shallow holes dug under a barrier to cross the border, authorities said Friday.

A group of border sheriffs says that a border wall is only a sound bite and "not a cogent" public policy position that's needed to secure the border.