Over five years, the largest U.S. city on the Mexican border developed a well-oiled system to shelter asylum-seekers.
Before they are released in San Diego, some migrants being dropped off have been waiting between a double-layer border wall or camping under Border Patrol watch in remote mountains east of the city. CBP closed a major pedestrian border crossing from Tijuana, Mexico, on Sept. 14 and assigned more officials to processing migrants."Many do not know where they are, that this is San Diego, this is San Diego region, the nearest airport is San Diego and how to get to their final destination.
Last week, after a community recreation center could no longer handle the flow of migrants, the Border Patrol resumed drop-offs at a transit center. Arrivals from China, India, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia and many west African countries filled a parking lot to charge phones, eat, use the bathroom and wait for free shuttle buses to the airport."Is California far from here?" an Eritrean man asked volunteers.
Shelters still accommodate families with young children, members of the LGBTQ+ community, the elderly and medically frail. The drop-offs are largely for single adults. Jewish Family Service has maintained shelter capacity at about 950 at a hotel and another large facility. The Border Patrol dropped off about 400 migrants by early afternoon one recent day as airport shuttles left about every hour. Overnight camping is prohibited. Migrants with flights within 24 hours are encouraged to wait at the airport.