In the week and a half since the presidential asylum restrictions were implemented, more than 2,700 migrants have been released by Border Patrol in San Diego
A presidential order limiting access to asylum was supposed to limit illegal border crossings, increase migrant detentions and quicken the pace that migrants are returned — either back across the U.S.-Mexico border or on flights to home countries around the world.
But those kinds of changes have been slow to take shape in San Diego County in the week and a half since the order was rolled out.
In an eight-day period beginning June 5, the day the proclamation was issued, 2,728 migrants who had been processed by U.S. Border Patrol after arriving in San Diego were released, according to data provided to county officials. That’s still more than half the number of migrants released to the streets on any given week in April.
On Monday, for instance, 328 people were released at a transit center in west Otay Mesa throughout the day. On Wednesday it was 423.
Volunteers who wait at the station to assist them never know how many Border Patrol buses will come, if any, or what time on any given day. But they continue to arrive despite the order.
On Monday, Ruth Méndez, a volunteer with the Free Them All Coalition, assisted people from countries such as Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Jamaica, informing them about their options for getting to the airport so they could continue to their final destinations around the U.S.
Ruth Méndez, a volunteer, speaks in Spanish and English giving dozens of migrants information on how to navigate the transit system after they were dropped off at the Iris Avenue Transit Center by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Monday. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Some migrants said they had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border two days earlier. There was a general sense of relief among the migrants, many of them asylum seekers. It was business as usual. Migrants were released with a court date, just as thousands had been for months.
A U.S. government memo released last week implies a lack of government authority and resources to detain and return every eligible migrant is at play. The memo instructed border agents to give the highest priority to detaining migrants who can be easily returned, followed by nationalities who are harder to remove, such as those from the eastern hemisphere, and then those from countries that won’t accept U.S. flights, according to The New York Post and The Associated Press.
“We know that there is a certain priority that the Border Patrol is putting on certain countries,” said Pedro Ríos, director of the American Friends Service Committee’s U.S.-Mexico Border Program.
The nonprofit group, which provides humanitarian aid to migrants crossing through a stretch of the border between the two fences near San Ysidro, has seen little change in the number of people arriving since the order went into effect.
Dozens of migrants are dropped off at the Iris Avenue Transit Center by U.S. Border Patrol agents on Monday in San Diego. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
San Diego’s chief Border Patrol agent reported nearly 7,700 apprehensions in the week since the order was implemented, down from about 8,500 the week prior.
Ríos said it is hard to know if the situation at the border will change in the next few days, or if the order will have the deterrent effect that the Biden administration was hoping for. “I would have thought that by this time we would have seen some change,” he said, “but that has not been the case.”
The number of released migrants traveling through the San Diego International Airport remained steady, a spokesperson said Tuesday. “We continue efforts to assist travelers with securing travel arrangements, by coordinating with migrant-serving volunteer groups and nonprofit organizations as they help their clients navigate to their destinations,” the spokesperson added.
About 55 miles to the east in Jacumba Hot Springs, a sense of uncertainty reigns among newly arrived asylum seekers.
On Wednesday, a week after the executive order was implemented, a group of asylum seekers from Mexico and Colombia walked in the heat to drink from two large cisterns in front of the border wall.
Migrants are met by Border Patrol in Jacumba Hot Springs on Wednesday. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
After catching their breaths, a group of Colombian asylum-seekers formed a circle and, holding hands, said a short prayer to give thanks for their safe arrival and pray for all those on the journey.
“It was a very complicated journey, with a lot of uncertainty and danger,” said Jorge López. “Many of us come with problems from our countries, threats or extortion, that’s why you make the decision to migrate to a country to get help and protection.”
The migrants, who met along the way, said they heard about the executive order on their way to the border. “God has the last word,” said María Basto of Colombia. “We got here when we thought it was impossible.”
Under the executive action, migrants are screened by an asylum officer only if they spontaneously volunteer fear of being returned to their country. They will also be screened under a higher standard. The rule does not affect some groups, such as unaccompanied children, victims of a severe form of trafficking, or those facing life-threatening emergencies, as well as those with CBP One appointments.
Ashley Sofia, 3, left, Lizbeth Gonzalez, 25, who holds Eden Valentine, 1, and Sebastian Gonzalez, 9, sit in the only shade on Wednesday in Jacumba Hot Springs, California. The family is from Mexico and is fleeing from violence. About 80 migrants were waiting more than three hours to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol. (Ana Ramirez / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not immediately respond to questions about deportation numbers or street releases on Friday.
However, senior administration officials with the Department of Homeland Security said Monday during a media phone call that “thousands of people” had been returned to Mexico, in addition to 20 repatriation flights to other countries.
“We expect to continue to see these numbers of removals and quick processing for repatriation increase as we work to fully maximize implementation and use of expedited removal for all individuals encountered under the proclamation,” officials said.
Officials said they recorded 3,100 encounters along the U.S.-Mexico border last Sunday, a decrease from the seven-day average, but still not below the 1,500 average daily threshold needed to remove the asylum limitations.
On Tuesday, the situation was further complicated when Mexican officials announced, without giving reasons, that they would no longer accept people from Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador. Mexican nationals, as well as migrants from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Haiti and Cuba, can still be returned across the border. Mexico has been busing many returned migrants south into the country’s interior.
More than a dozen organizations in the binational region this week asked the Mexican government to be transparent about the protocol for people who are returned to the country and to ensure that they receive dignified treatment, safety and shelter.
“These policies not only exacerbate the situation at the border, but also place an unsustainable burden on border cities like Tijuana,” said a statement signed by several organizations, including Al Otro Lado, American Friends Service Committee, Haitian Bridge Alliance and Espacio Migrante.
“Shelters and humanitarian care spaces report a critical lack of resources to care for this population, and incidents of violence and exploitation against migrants continue to increase due to the lack of security and protection,” it added.
Earlier this week, the American Civil Liberties Union and other immigrant rights groups sued the Biden administration over the asylum restrictions. The U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., has yet to issue a ruling on whether the policy can remain in effect while the lawsuit is pending.