|
 San Diego's Border Patrol agents will instead help manage the
influx by processing paperwork and conducting intake interviews via
computer and telephone, according to Gabe Pacheco, a spokesman for
the agents' union, the National Border Patrol Council.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials declined to give a
reason for the change. But it appeared driven by an outcry against
the transfers in the town of Murrieta, California, where a Border
Patrol office originally had been assigned to take in many of the
migrants.
An initial group of about 140 undocumented detainees, mostly Central
American women and children, was flown from Texas to San Diego on
July 1, then were taken by bus north to Murrieta.
After processing there, immigration officials said, most were likely
to be released within days under limited supervision - some to
relatives and friends or charity organizations - to await
deportation proceedings.
 But angry protesters blocked the buses from reaching their
destination, forcing diversion of the caravan to another station in
San Diego. Murrieta officials and residents have continued their
objections to plans for further transfers there, citing public
safety and health concerns.
The immigrant groups are part of a growing wave of unaccompanied
minors and families fleeing Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and
streaming into the United States by way of human trafficking
networks through Mexico.
More than 52,000 children traveling alone from Central America have
been caught at the U.S.-Mexico border since October, double the
number from the same period the year before. Thousands more have
been detained with parents or other adults.
[to top of second column] |
U.S. immigration officials say the crisis is being driven by a mix
of extreme poverty, gangs and drug violence in Central America, as
well as rumors perpetuated by smugglers that children who reach the
U.S. border will be permitted to stay.
For now, overflow processing sites set up by the Border Patrol
elsewhere in Southern California, and in Arizona and New Mexico,
will continue accepting detainees to ease the surge.
Only Murrieta, whose 107,000 residents are mostly white, has erupted
in demonstrations. By contrast, the town of El Centro, California,
where whites account for 14 percent of the population and Hispanics
81 percent, has seen no protests.
(Editing by Steve Gorman and Ron Popeski)
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