It’s official: San Diego is the new ground zero for the U.S. border crisis, and last month saw the most immigration detentions than any other place.
At least 37,370 migrants entered the U.S. through the San Diego sector, which includes all of Southern California except El Centro at the Arizona state line, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.
In April, the San Diego region surpassed Tucson, which had been the busiest in the country, and fell to second place with 31,219 border encounters.
The El Paso sector, which includes the West Texas city and all of New Mexico, rose to third place with 30,393.
San Diego was expected to become the main trouble spot on the border, as the area had been bombarded with between 6,000 and 8,000 people crossing the border per week in recent months.
Migrants break through a border wall looking for clothing handed out by volunteers as they wait between two border walls to request asylum Friday in San Diego.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me,” San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond told DailyMail.com last month.
‘Texas is clamping down and other areas are clamping down. Here in California they are allowed to enter without obstacles. “They are going to follow the path of least resistance, and the least resistance is in California.”
In fact, the Del Rio Sector, which includes the Texas city of the same name and Eagle Pass, had long held first place in the entire country as of 2021.
In January, the governor of Texas cracked down on illegal crossings by seizing a park known as the place where migrants entered.
Governor Greg Abbott also expelled Border Patrol agents from the territory, arguing that the federal government was doing enough to prevent the entry of immigrants.
While the change is attributed to Abbott’s actions, drug cartels have more influence in the places where migrants cross.
San Diego had the most encounters in April, followed by the Tucson sector and El Paso, according to figures recently released by the U.S. Border Patrol.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, the parent agency of the U.S. Border Patrol, released the latest figure for the month of April, showing that about 37,370 immigrants entered the country through the San Antonio Sector. Diego.
Border experts have described a $13 billion human trafficking business from Mexico to the United States as a runaway business, with one area exploding while others calm down.
Since February, the Mexican government has also stepped up efforts to keep migrants in Mexico before they can reach the United States.
This has resulted in fewer border crossings than normal along the entire international border.
In April, 247,837 immigrants entered the United States illegally, compared to previous months in which more than 300,000 crossings occurred.
Immigrants who are arrested in the San Diego sector and examined by the United States Border Patrol are being released onto the streets.
The county’s migrant shelter closed a few months ago, after local leaders decided they didn’t want the $18 million a year to continue running it.
Migrants with carry-on luggage are apprehended at the El Campo border on March 13
‘At that time, being their travel agent cost us around $1.5 million a month. The Border Patrol was his Uber, taking them to those drop-off areas, and then we were his travel agent,” Desmond joked.
Without local shelter, the feds turn migrants loose at a transit station or at the airport.
‘The biggest load here lately has been our airport. Luckily many of them fly to other parts of the country, but we are a tourist community. People who come to San Diego see all the people sleeping there. It looks bad,” added the commissioner.
‘We just can’t sustain it; “We can’t manage the numbers that come here.”
Immigrants have been known to spend up to five days crashing at the airport while waiting for a flight out of the city, Desmond added.
Migrants surrender to U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the border wall from Mexico near Campo, California, about 50 miles from San Diego, on Wednesday, March 13.
Like other border communities across the country, the San Diego airport is not adding additional flights simply because there is an increase in migrant crossings.
Many times, there are no seats available to fly or migrants, with limited means, wait a day or two until ticket prices drop and they can afford to travel to their final destination.
Last month, a local conservative talk show host shared an image of a migrant sleeping under airport toilets.
‘My photo at San Diego International Airport this morning. Men’s bathroom near TSA, gates 5-10 in Terminal One. Transient homeless people or “asylum seekers” sleeping under sinks next to urinals. The increase in immigrants dumped in SD is common everywhere,” Mark Larson tweeted.
However, Biden has promised the county $20 million to open a shelter in the coming weeks.