Rep. Ruben Gallego is making moves to streamline the migrant processing system and bring some relief to his home state of Arizona, which has been grappling with the impacts of border crisis. In a new legislative push, Gallego has introduced a pair of bills — the Direct Hire Act and the Screening Efficiency Act — both designed to quickly address the influx of migrants and ease the pressures on the state's border communities, according to a press release.
"Arizonans deserve real solutions to the crisis at our southern border, which is why I’m fighting to tackle it from every angle, including providing additional resources to federal officials and first responders in our border communities," Gallego said. The Direct Hire Act aims to significantly make it easier for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to swiftly hire officers, with the goal of reducing severe backlogs and improving the speed of screenings and removals.
The Screening Efficiency Act, on the other hand, proposes to combine screenings for credible fear alongside other asylum or removal processes, thereby eliminating repetitive interviews that can bog down the system. Gallego hopes these measures will cut the wait times for migrants and reduce capacity demands on relevant agencies. Both bills echo components of a bipartisan border proposal that the Senate is anticipated to reconsider for a vote before the week concludes.
Previous efforts by Gallego to funnel resources into Arizona's border areas include securing over $2 million in emergency funding from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), targeting an upsurge in migrant crossings. Gallego has been directly coordinating with non-profits, border community leaders, and law enforcement to reform FEMA's Shelter and Services Program (SSP), that has particularly fallen short in supporting those on the front lines of the border crisis. To further bolster these communities, Gallego announced in April a whopping $54,573,093 in SSP funding aimed to, not just address but also strategically prioritize, the challenges faced by Arizona's border towns and cities.
Adding to his legislative portfolio, the "Buck Stops Here Act" — a move by Gallego to curb fentanyl trafficking across the border by empowering the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — was signed into law last April.
