In recent months, thousands of immigrants who entered the United States illegally have been dropped off in the streets of San Diego, California, with no plans as to where to stay, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
Reportedly, on Monday, a WSJ reporter witnessed “an unmarked white bus” driven by the U.S. government drop the illegal immigrants off in the community. Shelters in the area have hit full capacity, resulting in migrants being dropped off on the streets, bus stops, train stations, and other places (via WSJ):
In San Diego, an estimated 7,800 migrants have been released in the past two weeks, according to county officials, who on Tuesday declared the situation to be a humanitarian crisis.
“We see people being released to the streets with in some cases a little more than the clothes on their back,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Her organization set up a makeshift aid center for migrants at the park, and the Border Patrol has been dropping off people there.
Toczylowski told WSJ that her organization is finding beds for illegal immigrants in hotels and in the homes of some volunteers. Some are taken on buses to the airport to travel to New York.
According to the San Diego Tribune, over 8,100 illegal immigrants have come to the city. This figure is expected to go up. Thousands of migrants have been sent to other cities across the country, such as Chicago and New York City.
A man named Mohamed Aweineny, 29, told WSJ that he came to the U.S. illegally to “look for a job and a good life” (via WSJ):
One of the new arrivals Monday was Mohamed Aweineny, a 29-year-old from Mauritania. He said he left his home in the West Africa country on Sept. 3 and hopscotched around the globe before flying from South America to Nicaragua and then taking buses and cabs, as well as walking, north to the U.S.-Mexico border.
He climbed over a 30-foot fence that separates Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego.
“I came to America to look for a job and a good life,” Aweineny said in Arabic. He was bound for Alabama, he said, in hopes of reuniting with a friend.
Aweineny and other 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.
On Tuesday, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a letter to federal officials asking for help with the illegal immigrants.
“These releases occur with little direction and minimal resources, leaving local communities grappling with an increasingly untenable situation,” Supervisor Jim Desmond, a Republican, said in a statement. “While we are a community that values compassion and empathy, we must also acknowledge the practical limits of our capacity to meet the needs of those who arrive in our region.”
Desmond pointed out that San Diego is using money that is supposed to be used to help the local homeless population.
“If you want us to fund this response, what program would you have us take that money from?” he said.