California veterans, despite warnings from the Border Patrol, have assumed the responsibility of fixing the immigration crisis by sealing gaps in the border. Known as the “Border Vets,” this group has concentrated on Jacumba Hot Springs in the mountains, 60 miles east of San Diego.
This location has witnessed a surge in migrant crossings in recent months, making the veterans take action. “Whoever it is you’re waiting to do this for you, they’re not coming. It’s going to be people like us, like America’s veterans,” retired marine Kate Monroe told Border Report.
“It’s really serious for everybody here that we protect our nation. The holes that we can find (in the border wall), we’re going to go ahead and get the razor wire and do our best to defend our country,” she added.
Jacumba Hot Springs has become famous for immigrants crossing the border and heading towards San Diego. Gregory Bull, a photographer from the Associated Press, recently captured images of immigrants entering Jacumba Hot Springs. He shared with CNN that the immigrants were mainly from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Additionally, there were some from China and India among them.
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According to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), nearly 140,000 illegal immigrants have crossed into the San Diego sector. This occurred since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2024 on October 1st.
These migrants coming from Central Asia, Africa, and China, besides South America, sneak across the border close to Jacumba Hot Springs. Instead of running or avoiding the authorities, they wait at an unofficial camp for the Border Patrol. When Border Patrol arrives, they use buses to take the migrants to a processing facility.
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However, Customs and Border Protection have clarified that people cannot change, adjust, or repair the border barrier. Only authorized border patrol agents and contractors have permission to do that.
However, Monroe, one of the veterans, said they keep doing their work regularly. “That’s not going to stop us or deter us from coming here,” Monroe said. “If we can stop them for one day, one hour, one week, we’ve stopped more people from coming into our country.”
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According to Monroe, the border patrol agents they’ve met haven’t stopped them from putting up razor wire. They appreciate the group’s efforts. Once migrants are eligible to pursue asylum applications, they are provided with the necessary documentation and permitted entry into the country.
However, officials reported that over the weekend, more than 1,300 newly arrived migrants were left on the streets of San Diego. This influx completely overwhelmed local resources. The situation arose after the closure of a welcome center that assisted in processing migrants, which was forced to shut down due to insufficient funding.
“This is entirely the fault of the Federal Government for its open border policies and the State of California for incentivizing people from around the world to come here,” San Diego County supervisor Jim Desmond said in a tweet.
The CBP has reported 961,537 border encounters in the current fiscal year, from October through September. If it continues at this pace, the fiscal year 2024 may surpass last year’s record of 2,475,669 border encounters nationwide.
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