Surging border crossings are putting stress on communities in Southern California, where hordes of migrants are regularly spotted. This is at transit hubs after immigration officials resumed street releases, local politicians say.
“There’s no end in sight,” San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond told Fox News. “This is a new norm, which I think we’re going to get a rude wake-up call someday.”
Migrants’ first days in Southern California regularly follow a similar pattern. They surrender to border patrol agents after going over, around, or through gaps within the border fence.
Perhaps it’s immediately; perhaps they should wait on the side of the road for a few hours to be caught; or perhaps they make a risky trek through mountains that Customs and Border Safety warn range from snow-blanketed inside the iciness to perilously hot and dry inside the summer.
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They get searched, processed at a CBP facility tucked amid truck repair stores and car auction businesses, and released. Most of them—but not all—get dropped off at nearby transit stations, Desmond stated. Long gone from San Diego County before many residents have even registered their arrival.
“A lot of them are going to the East Coast,” Desmond said of the folks he has spoken to at the border. “So a lot of them leave. But there’s a lot we don’t know.”
Positioned about 15 minutes from downtown San Diego, El Cajon has become considered one of a handful of drop-off sites for migrants.
Mayor Bill Wells stated the border has “always been a trouble,” but the federal government has constantly made an effort to prevent “horrific actors” like cartels and gang participants from coming into the country.
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Now the gates are wide open,” Wells told Fox News. “We’re no longer even trying.” According to CBP statistics, the San Diego sector saw an 85% boom in encounters in February compared to the same month last year. Agents there made more than 230,000 encounters at some point in the fiscal year 2023, a record 2024 is on course to shatter.
Even as the Biden administration guarantees “our borders are not open,” those at the front line describe a contradictory scene. Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed with “give-ups,”
These are those who stroll across the border and declare asylum in order that they can be detained, processed, and then released into the United States.
“I don’t blame the Border Patrol agents,” Desmond said. “Their hands are tied.”
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Both Wells and Desmond have documented crowds at nearby transit stations. Desmond said CBP releases between 600 and 900 humans on a given day, usually at places that lack bathrooms and other facilities. From time to time, nonprofits or “entrepreneurial” taxi drivers are there waiting, he stated.
“Lamentably, San Diego Airport now has ended up being the de facto migrant safe haven, where they sleep there,” he introduced, estimating that around 90% of migrants continue to other cities around the United States, like Chicago or New York. “Hopefully, a lot of them leave. But we have no, really, idea of if they do or not.”
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