I recently reported on the invasion of illegal border crossers landing on the shores of southern California in high-speed boats, to be carried away in vans waiting close to beaches.
These landings represent a small, though dramatic, fraction of the now steady stream of illegal border crossings that have ramped up in recent months, making San Diego the hot new center of the Biden border crisis.
“San Diego is the new epicenter for migrants and illegal immigration,” San Diego District 5 Supervisor Jim Desmond posted on the social platform X. “The surge in illegal crossings has propelled San Diego to the unfortunate position of leading all nine southern border sectors in April, a trend unseen since the 1990’s.”Desmond said Wednesday that in just one day, Border Patrol agents apprehended 2,000 people who were illegally crossing the border, “including 206 Chinese nationals.” Since October, there have been nearly 215,000 apprehensions from 75 different countries, his post said.“People are just walking across the border. Border Patrol agents are not empowered to stop them,” Desmond said in an interview with NewsNation. “All they’re doing is processing them once they … walk across the border.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported almost 2,000 more migrant crossings along the San Diego U.S.-Mexico border during the third week of April than the previous week. The situation was not helped when a federal judge appointed border control agents to be babysitters.
Along the border, west of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, volunteers have set up tents to meet the basic needs of migrants while they wait to be taken in by border patrol agents and be processed.“The gate was open. The big gate was open, and we crossed running all the way here,” Aaron, an 11-year-old from Peru, said….He’s among the latest wave of migrant children arriving to San Diego’s border. His arrival comes nearly two weeks after a federal judge’s ruling ordered border patrol agents to care for the welfare of migrant children in makeshift camps along the border.“Basically, what the ruling was from Judge Gee in the court was that there was something that was a settlement back in the mid-90s called the Flores settlement. It dealt with unaccompanied minors, children that are undocumented, and making sure that they have safe conditions upon arrival,” Tammy Lin, University of San Diego adjunct professor and supervisor attorney for USD Immigration Law Clinic, said.The ruling gives border patrol
Part of the reason for the influx is that Gov. Greg Abbott’s Texas border enforcement measures have made the route through that state less appealing.
Arrests in the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes the city of Eagle Pass, the main focus of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s border enforcement efforts, plummeted 76% from December to 16,712, the lowest since December 2021. Arrests in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, dropped 60% to 7,340, the lowest since July 2020.
There is bad news for non-Californians: The illegal immigrants are not staying in California but quickly moving to other parts of the country.
The sheer number of people arriving has overwhelmed resources in the San Diego area; after migrants are apprehended and processed at a facility near the border, local officials told the BBC that up to 1,000 people a day are being released at city train and bus stops.Just after 8am, Border Patrol agents arrived and opened the gate to begin intake on the strip of land where migrants have been waiting. Men are allowed only one layer of clothing, women and children two; they line up and pull off jackets and shoelaces (which are not allowed at the processing centre due to safety concerns), packing them into plastic bags or backpacks.From there, they file on to buses and head to a processing centre, where they are registered and can file a claim for asylum. The vast majority are heading to towns and cities across the US where they have family, friends and networks.
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