San Diego International Airport has been overrun with migrants waiting for flights to leave the area; More than 300 barricaded themselves there last week, including some who sat on the ground for days.
“It’s grown exponentially and we’re not totally sure why,” We All We Got volunteer Krystle Johnson told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“It’s almost becoming a second [migrant welcome] downtown because there are a lot of people there,” he said of the airport.
Volunteers say the situation has worsened in recent weeks.
Roni Elias, another We All We Got volunteer, said the organization normally brought 50 sandwiches and food packages to migrants at the airport, but when she delivered them last week, she realized it wasn’t enough.
Elias told WKRG that last week he counted 308 people sleeping at the airport.
More than 300 migrants slept at San Diego International Airport last week while waiting for flights out of the area. The group We All We Got says it would normally bring 50 sandwiches and meals to migrants at the airport, but last week realized it wasn’t enough.
SBCS, the nonprofit organization that runs the San Diego Welcome Center, operates several buses from its facility to the airport every day.
Some volunteers have even suggested that migrants will be transported directly to the airport after being processed by the US Border Patrol.
In a statement to the Union-Tribune, airport officials acknowledged: “Since late last year, San Diego International Airport has experienced a significant increase in the number of immigrants using the airport to head to their next destination.
“We have coordinated and will continue to coordinate with migrant-serving volunteer groups and nonprofit organizations as they help their clients navigate the airport.”
SBCS, the nonprofit organization that runs the San Diego Welcome Center, operates several buses to the airport every day. AP
Nearly 20 of the immigrants arriving each day do not have a flight booked, said Immigrant Defenders Law Center managing attorney Paulina Reyes.
About half can find a flight by the end of the day, he said, but there are some cases where migrant families wait three or four nights at the airport while waiting for a family member to buy a ticket.
Others had a flight booked but were sent to the airport days before their scheduled departure date.
SBCS spokesperson Mindy Wright has denied the claim.
Several immigrants arriving at the airport have no other means of transportation booked, volunteers say.
He told the Union-Tribune that before any of the buses full of migrants head to the airport, staff require migrants to prove they have a flight booked for that day or the next.
The city is struggling to cope with the surge of migrants from the southern border.
More than 40,000 immigrants have been processed by Border Patrol agents and released in San Diego County since mid-September.
Asylum seekers are then sent to a halfway house, which could soon run out of money.
San Diego is struggling to cope with the surge of migrants coming from the southern border. Getty Images More than 40,000 immigrants have been processed by Border Patrol agents and released in San Diego County since mid-September. AFP via Getty Images
County officials allocated $3 million in October for its operation, but it is unclear when or if it might receive additional funding.
“As a county, we did everything we could to reallocate some funds, but right now I need the federal government to do its part,” San Diego County Supervisor Nora Vargas said as she invited federal and state officials to tour the facilities earlier. this month, according to 10 News.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn