US Border Patrol drops migrants in San Diego

The US Border Patrol is dropping thousands of migrants on San Diego streets because it can't handle a new wave of illegal immigration, leading the city to declare a "humanitarian crisis'' as its shelters can't accommodate a surge in both homelessness and migration.

The San Diego Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Sept 26 to declare the crisis as an estimated 7,800 migrants were released and placed on the streets, according to city officials.

They were transported to San Diego by buses and left at parks. They were also dropped at streets, bus stops or train stations — some disoriented, with no idea of their whereabouts and no accommodation plans.

"We see people being released to the streets with in some cases a little more than the clothes on their back," Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, told The Wall Street Journal.

Toczylowski's organization has set up a makeshift center at a neighborhood park where the Border Patrol has been dropping people. Volunteers at her organization also helped migrants find aid and places to sleep.

Migrants released by the Border Patrol are given orders to report back to authorities or immigration court at a later date to start determining their eligibility for asylum or other protection, which can take years because of backlogs.

Federal border agents have released migrants during the past surges in illegal immigration, but the San Diego officials said that the number now is the highest ever, as many migrants were arriving from Central America and Mexico.

Many of the migrants are fleeing from Venezuela to seek asylum as the Biden administration granted 470,000 Venezuelans permission to work in the US, causing more to undertake the journey.

At the San Diego aid center, located on the edge of the park, normally used for community events, signs in Spanish, Urdu, Mandarin, French, Turkish and Arabic explain that migrants can't stay overnight.

Local shelters already were operating at full capacity, including the approximately 950 beds in San Diego that are normally sufficient for recently arrived migrants who require overnight accommodations, according to the Journal.

San Diego Board of Supervisor Jim Desmond and Chair Nora Vargas proposed the crisis declaration, which would allow them to request additional funding to address the overcapacity. The county's Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs also will be sending a letter seeking more federal assistance for the local organizations to address the current crisis.

Desmond said that the county of San Diego has been reallocating resources from the local homeless population to offer assistance to the migrants.

According to data from the 2023 WeAllCount Point-in-Time Count, homelessness in San Diego has increased by at least 14 percent in 2023. The county also ranked eighth among the cities with the largest homeless population, according to the latest data from the Annual Homelessness Assessment Report by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Representatives of other aid groups also urged the county officials to secure a federal response.

Volunteers were also helping migrants to nearby cities and other destinations across the country. A posted notice shows migrants the ticket prices for flights to such major cities as New York, San Francisco and Washington DC, where it might be easier for them to obtain cash jobs.

However, such cities have already struggled to make room since 2022. For example, New York City has placed migrants in hotels, psychiatric centers and shelters.