A group of up to 20 migrants attempted to board school buses filled with children in Southern California, officials said.
Migrants attempted to board buses along two school routes twice this week at the stop near Highway 94 and Cochera, according to the Jamul-Dulzura Unified School District in San Diego County.
Superintendent Liz Bystedt said in a letter to parents that three migrants were walking in the middle of the road on Tuesday, trying to stop one of the district’s school buses and forcing it to drive around the group.
Then, on Wednesday morning, about 20 migrants pounced on a bus picking up students at the same stop.
Parents who were present say they helped the bus driver ensure that none of the migrants got on the bus, the report said. Fox5 San Diego.
Migrants attempted to board buses along two school routes twice this week in San Diego County, at the bus stop near Highway 94 and Cochera.
Nicole Cardinale told Fox 5 that her eight-year-old son’s school bus was one of those hit this week and described the incident as “really scary.”
He said these adults – they were not children – had backpacks and were trying to get on (his bus)… He said there were a lot of them.
Bystedt has announced that buses will now avoid stops with immigrants nearby and head to the next stop on the route, for the “safety of students and bus drivers.”
“Please remain vigilant and if the bus passes, follow it to pick up your child at the next stop,” the superintendent told parents.
It’s unclear why the migrants tried to board the buses, but migrant advocate Pedro Rios told Fox 5 that the heat and mountainous terrain of the area can lead to a desperate response.
The school district reported the incident to the U.S. Patrol, the California Highway Patrol and the San Diego Sheriff’s Office.
“Please remain vigilant and if the bus passes, follow it to pick up your child at the next stop,” the superintendent told parents.
Nicole Cardinale told Fox 5 that her eight-year-old son’s school bus was one of those affected this week, describing the incident as “really scary.”
The Sheriff’s Department said in a statement to Fox 5: “The San Diego Sheriff’s Office was made aware of this incident today. We are conducting a follow-up investigation to determine if foul play has occurred.”
‘The Sheriff’s Office takes issues related to student safety very seriously and is working with the school district to keep students and our community safe.’
San Diego became the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in April, according to U.S. figures, the fifth region to hold that distinction in two years, in a sign of how rapidly migration routes are changing.
Many migrants say San Diego is the easiest and least dangerous place to cross. They constantly check their phones for messages, social media posts and voice calls to help them plan their route and crossing.
San Diego became the busiest corridor for illegal crossings in April, according to U.S. figures.
It’s unclear why the migrants tried to board the buses, but migrant advocate Pedro Rios told Fox 5 that the heat and mountainous terrain in the area can lead to a desperate response.
According to U.S. officials, San Diego’s appeal is partly due to the fact that Tijuana is the largest city on the Mexican side of the border. This year, people of nearly 100 nationalities have arrived at Tijuana’s airport, including 12,000 from Colombia and Cuba, about 6,000 from Haiti and Venezuela, and thousands more from Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, China and Mauritania.
Migration in San Diego presents a challenge because people are coming from a wider variety of countries — including India, Georgia, Egypt, Jamaica and Vietnam — where deportation flights can be expensive and difficult to organize, U.S. officials say. Mexicans, who are deported by land nearby, and Guatemalans and Hondurans, whose governments have long accepted frequent deportation flights, have a smaller presence there than elsewhere along the border.