San Diego recorded a staggering 6,997 migrant encounters in just seven days in early April, in an alarming indicator of the worsening border crisis, DailyMail.com can reveal.
The figure is about the same as what other sectors typically see in an entire month, and only reflects those who were caught, meaning the true scale is likely higher.
“Unfortunately, it doesn’t surprise me,” San Diego County Commissioner Jim Desmond told DailyMail.com on Thursday.
‘Texas is clamping down and other areas are clamping down.
Migrants with carry-on luggage are apprehended at the El Campo border on March 13
The US Border Patrol detained 6,997 migrants from April 3 to 9
Georgian migrant Nani smiles as she thanks an American volunteer, speaking between gaps in one of the border walls separating Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, as she waits to apply for asylum in the United States on Friday.
Migrant encounters in the San Diego sector (shown above) have increased steadily since 2021. Last week, the region recorded 6,997 in just one week, according to federal statistics.
“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.”
The San Diego sector, which includes most of Southern California’s border with Mexico except El Centro and Calexico, has been experiencing a large number of migrant crossings in recent weeks, between 6,000 and 8,000.
What makes the April 3-9 numbers so significant is that they were the highest in the country, surpassing even Tucson’s number one sector.
The Arizona sector only received 6,600, but regularly reaches 11,000.
The Border Patrol divides the border into “sectors” or regions.
According to the latest numbers released by the feds, San Diego has been the third busiest place, but that could be changing.
“Tucson has been the number one sector for immigrant arrivals since July 2023, but the numbers have been declining,” said Adam Isacson of the Washington Office on Latin America.
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.
These Chinese immigrants were dropped off at a transit center near San Diego on Tuesday after they were processed and examined by federal immigration authorities.
“While one week’s worth of data is not enough evidence, San Diego may be supplanting Tucson as the number one sector.”
With so many migrants entering the country through Southern California, migrants being screened by the US 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.
‘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.
Chinese immigrants are crossing the US-Mexico border in increasing numbers, federal statistics show
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.
The most recent weekly figure does not include migrants who entered the United States legally with CBP One Appointments at the San Ysidro Port of Entry between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego California.
At least 77,000 immigrants have entered Southern California that way between October and February, federal statistics show.
The figure also does not take into account so-called fugitives, immigrants who federal agents know entered the country but were unable to detain, a number that was not disclosed.