Migrants from around the world traverse California desert to reach US
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[June 06, 2024]
By Adrees Latif and Mary Milliken
JACUMBA HOT SPRINGS, California (Reuters) - Propped up against the rusty
steel slats of the border wall, migrant families who hours before
crossed the U.S.-Mexico border rest under tarps and tents and await
Border Patrol officers.
Some of the families along this remote desert stretch in San Diego
County have brought their children with them, including small infants.
In recent months, the San Diego-Mexico border has become one of the
busiest crossings for migrants seeking safe haven and opportunities in
the United States.
In May, Reuters reporters came across Colombians, Ecuadoreans,
Peruvians, Turks, Brazilians, Jordanians, Egyptians, Indians and Chinese
- a more varied mix than the Mexicans and Central Americans who formed
the bulk of migrants in years past.
The high volume of crossings has ignited a political firestorm for
President Joe Biden as the Democrat seeks re-election in November. And
they have provided Republicans and their likely presidential candidate
Donald Trump with plenty of ammunition to criticize Biden's immigration
policy.
The Biden administration is hoping the numbers of migrants crossing will
drop following the announcement this week of a broad asylum ban that
would deny migrants caught crossing illegally the right to claim asylum.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jun/06/images/ads/current/graue_sda_042021.png)
The Biden administration said high rates of border arrests has triggered
the measures, which took effect immediately but include exceptions for
unaccompanied children, people who face serious medical or safety
threats and victims of trafficking.
In April, close to 30% of all the Border Patrol arrests across the
U.S.-Mexico border were in the San Diego sector, U.S. Customs and Border
Protection data showed. So far this fiscal year, which began in October,
there have been more than 1.16 million migrant apprehensions border
wide.
The many Colombians here say their country has become too dangerous and
they have received threats against their lives.
"There were threats towards me," said Edward, a 35-year-old teacher who
asked that only his first name be used.
"Where we lived, there was lots of insecurity. And sadly, from February,
they started threatening us and we decided to come here," he added.
He came with wife Luisa and their 11-month-old daughter and they hope
they can make their way to New York.
"Yes, we were worried" about traveling with such a small child," said
Edward. "But we were also thinking about the situation we were in."
Down the fence, groups of migrants travel to a hilly, boulder-covered
area where there is a break in the border fence. They clamber around the
fence and then head off to areas where they will be picked up by Border
Patrol.
Kali Kai Braun, a 49-year-old property manager at a gun range that sits
just inside the U.S. border, said large groups have started to come over
in the middle of the night. He witnessed recently a group of 70 to 100
migrants crossing at 1 a.m. and stayed up to make sure they didn't go
onto the property. He usually sees an average of 30 to 40 migrants a
day, mostly crossing in the morning.
"It is truly insane what I have seen in the last year," Braun.
WAITING IN HEAT AND SUN
Most migrants walk to open-air sites, and in the afternoon, they are
lined up and a Border Patrol agent takes pictures of their documents and
faces and loads them into buses to take them to a processing center.
Local resident Karen Parker, 61, brings water, snacks and medical
supplies to waiting migrants. She was spurred to help them when a
migrant woman was shouting in front of her house a year ago because she
had lost her children.
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![](../images/060624PIX/news_a53.jpg)
An asylum-seeking migrant from China rests on a rock while waiting
to be transported by the U.S. Border Patrol after crossing the
border from Mexico into the U.S. in Jacumba Hot Springs, California,
U.S. June 4, 2024. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/ File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jun/06/images/ads/current/debbiesfloral_lda_052824.png)
"So I went looking for her kids and I found 1,000 people from all
over the world," said Parker. "She found her kids. It's a small
town."
Parker said last winter and summer, migrants would be waiting by the
border fence for longer periods of time.
Jacumba Hot Springs in southeastern San Diego has long been a place
of migrant arrivals, but residents witness what Parker calls
"hundreds of traumatized people every day."
"I would like to see our government, the Border Patrol take some
responsibility and improve the conditions in this camp, the safety
of the children and the families that are here in this area," said
Parker.
And she would like to see the transport operations pick up the
children faster, so they don't have to wait in the heat and sun,
without shelter and shade.
A federal judge on April 3 ordered U.S. border agents to
“expeditiously process” any children out of "open air" detention
sites. The ruling came in the long-running, court-mandated agreement
on the treatment of migrant children in federal custody, known as
the Flores settlement.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not respond to a request for
comment.
ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY BECKONS
Three men from Jordan said they flew in through Nicaragua, now a hub
for migrants heading towards the United States.
They said it was hard to make ends meet in Jordan and they couldn't
get married because they didn't make enough money. The trip from
Nicaragua was hard and they were robbed in Honduras.
One of the men, who said his first name was Moath, graduated in 2017
and wanted to work in physical education. He could not find a job.
"My dream and my life, I want to come to America," said Moath, 33,
who plans to head to Florida while his two fellow Jordanians are
going to Chicago.
On some days, no migrants come over. Reuters observed how the
Mexican military stopped migrants from crossing by setting up a
patrol on their side of the fence.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2024/Jun/06/images/ads/current/siu_sda_PROMGARD_2024.png)
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, the lead Democrat who negotiated a
bipartisan border security bill that failed to pass in Congress,
said a recent decrease in the number of border crossings was due to
"smart, effective diplomacy between the United States and the
Mexican government."
Biden implemented the new asylum policy after Trump pushed
Republicans to vote against the legislative deal.
Alejandro, a 50-year-old Colombian who had to flee after his father
was killed and who is afraid to give his full name, hopes the
American people will understand their plight.
"Those of us here in this foreign land we are equally human beings
... we feel pain and happiness. We hope we are received with warm
human qualities and that we are treated like human beings," and then
he added "God made us all."
(Reporting by Adrees Latif and Mary Milliken; Editing by Aurora
Ellis)
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