An aid shelter across from a small border crossing in southeastern Arizona is closed amid a spike in violence from organized crime in the Sonoran city where it’s based.
The Sasabe Port of Entry is a remote border outpost that separates Sasabe, Arizona and Sasabe, Sonora. Casa de La Esperanza is a migrant resource center just past the crossing on the Mexican side.
Center operator Dora Rodriguez says it serves both migrants and local residents. Earlier this month, she says aid workers living in Sasabe called to tell her they were hearing gunshots in the nearby mountains. Soon after, warring factions of organized crime moved into the streets.
"And it escalated everyday, it was worse and worse and worse. And for a whole week, these people in this small town were in fear," she said.
The aid center has been closed for more than a week now. But Rodriguez says locals who work there are trapped and under threat. They tried to flee south toward Altar, a larger city about an hour and a half down the highway, but fighting and threats along the highway made it impossible.
Rodriguez is trying to get families into the U.S. temporarily on an emergency basis. A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson said CBP is aware of the violence, but the port of entry remains open and emergency entry requests made there would be assessed case-by-case.
