About 15 migrants who have just been released from custody were dropped off at the Phoenix Greyhound bus station on Wednesday.
A security guard put shackles in a van parked in the bus terminal parking lot. To his right stood migrants wearing only the chains.
Asylum seeker Lazaro Gutierrez re-laced his shoes, put on a belt and said he was in Miami.
“I’m fleeing the dictatorship in Cuba,” he said in Spanish.
Gutierrez said he crossed the Arizona border and spent two weeks in detention.
The number of migrants released on Metro Phoenix has increased in recent weeks. However, the pandemic reduced the effort required to support migrants locally, including in a makeshift shelter where the capacity to ensure people’s safety is less.
New data shows that the number of migrants border guards encountered rose by almost 30% in February.
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